


Triple Threat (Redone)

by LoveStoryFanatic



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Action/Adventure, Children, Developing Relationship, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Humor, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-05
Updated: 2015-03-19
Packaged: 2017-12-22 13:49:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 91,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/913926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoveStoryFanatic/pseuds/LoveStoryFanatic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU: Elizabeth is alive and Carson is not a clone. There's a few new members to the Atlantis expedition. Or, more importantly, one beautiful scientist who has a knack for pulling a certain commanding officer's heart strings. Things get even more interesting in the Pegasus Galaxy now that she's arrived. This is redone. A lot is still the same, just lots of mistakes FIXED and a few things changed. Hopefully it's better!! Also more chapters than before!!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Triple Threat

**Author's Note:**

> This is redone. A lot is still the same, just lots of mistakes FIXED and a few things changed. Hopefully it's better!! I didn't want to just delete everything, so I just figured it was easier to post it all over again. I'll spread out the chapters though instead of just updating them back to back.

** Chapter 1 **

“Weir to Sheppard, come in.”

John put down his sandwich and hit his com. “Sheppard here.”

Rodney looked up from his pad wondering if there was some kind of emergency. Again. He was mentally preparing himself to have to save the entire city singlehandedly.

“John, the new recruits from Earth just arrived on the Daedalus. I’d like you to meet them in the gate room and get everything settled.” John sighed and stood up to leave. “On my way. Sheppard out.”

He looked around the table at his teammates: Ronon, Teyla, and Rodney. “Well, I gotta go. The Daedalus just arrived and Elizabeth wants me to settle in our newcomers. Are we still on for sparring later, Teyla?”

She nodded, “Of course. You can use all the practice you can get.” He made a face at her and said, “Oh ha ha, very funny. I’ll see you then.” Teyla smiled and they watched as he left the mess hall.

He walked down corridor after corridor until he reached the gate room. He reached up and hit his com. “Daedalus, this is Sheppard. We are ready to receive the recruits.”

Lt. Stuart’s voice came over the com, “This is the Daedalus. Beaming them down now, sir.”

A bright light filled the gate room as the new recruits were beamed down to the city. Among the recruits were a variety of scientists, doctors, and military officers that were much needed since the last battle with the Wraith. Colonel Sheppard handpicked a few of them himself, as did the rest of the senior staff.

“Welcome to Atlantis. I’m Lt. Colonel John Sheppard, Commanding Military Officer of Atlantis. Now, if the doctors would kindly step down to your right and wait there for Dr. Beckett and the scientists move down to your left and wait for Dr. McKay, it would make things go much faster.”

He hit his com again, “Drs. Beckett and McKay, please report to the gate room to meet the new members of your team.”

“Military! Follow me and I’ll show you the ropes.”

John gave the military the grand tour of the city, including where the weapons room, the mess hall, and their quarters were. “At 1600 hours, there will be a meeting for all new members of the expedition in the central tower conference room. I suggest you get acquainted with the city and settle into your rooms until then.”

He smiled and made his way to the gym. He walked through the doors to find Teyla standing there with both their banto sticks. She tossed his set to him and he caught them.

“You’re late.” They started to circle each other slowly. “Yeah, sorry about that. The tour took longer than expected.”

They sparred for about an hour and a half, which mostly involved John ending up on the floor and having to pick himself back up. Then Ronon walked in, causing John to get distracted and not see Teyla’s banto stick coming straight for his head. The next thing he knew, he was waking up in the infirmary with Dr. Beckett standing over him.

“Doc…what happened?” Carson looked behind him. “He’s awake.”

Elizabeth, Teyla, and Ronon walked over the end of the bed John was laying on. Ronon had a smirk on his face as he said, “Teyla knocked you out. I carried you here.”

He looked from Ronon to Teyla. “It is true. Ronon walked in and you got distracted. You did not see my strike coming. I thought you were going to dodge, but you did not. I am sorry, John.”

“Don’t worry about it. That’s what I get for not paying attention. I didn’t miss the meeting, did I?”

Elizabeth smiled, “No, actually we were just on our way up there.” He looked over to Beckett. “Am I cleared to go?” Carson checked the bandage on the Colonel’s temple and then checked his readings. “Aye, you’re fine to go. Just take it easy and don’t do anything overly strenuous for 24 hours otherwise you’ll probably be back here complaining of a nasty headache. Off you go.”

“Thanks, Carson.” John slowly sat up and then got to his feet. He was a little slower than normal on his way to the conference room, but it wasn’t too bad. They had to hold three separate meetings debriefing the new recruits since not everyone could fit in the conference room at once. The military newcomers were the first to be debriefed.

They were already in the conference room when Elizabeth, John, Rodney, Teyla, Ronon, and Carson entered the room. They all sat down in their respective chairs while most of the recruits stood along the doors. Most of them kept passing glances at the bandage on the Colonel’s temple, but no one said anything.

The meetings went as planned: long and boring for the senior staff and overloading for the new recruits. Assigning everyone jobs was scheduled for the following morning.  

Later on that evening, John joined his team in the mess hall for supper like usual. They had all finished their meal and were sitting there laughing at Rodney’s expense when a fight broke out on the other side of the mess hall.  A tall, lean man was getting into another man’s face. The first guy seemed to be a scientist while the other was a marine.

John jumped up and ran over to the men fighting. “What seems to be the problem here?” They both stopped what they were doing and looked to see the Commanding Military Officer of Atlantis standing there with his hands on his hips.

The marine snapped to attention at the sight of his commanding officer. “At ease, Lt. Now, how about you tell me what the hell is going on.”

The scientist turned to face Sheppard. “This guy was harassing my sister. I was simply standing up for her.” John looked around, but didn’t see a woman anywhere near where the fight had started. “And where is your sister?”

“She’s not here, but he was telling me all the things that…well, that he could do to her, sir. He talked about locking her in a room, tying her up, and…doing…stuff…to her. I’d really rather not repeat what he said, if it’s all the same to you, sir.”

John nodded and slowly turned towards the Lt. Just looking at his face he could tell the man wasn’t lying. “Lt., report to my office in one hour and we’ll have a nice long discussion about this. Is that clear?”

The marine blushed. “Yes, sir.”

“Good. You’re dismissed.”

He turned back to the scientist. “Okay, what’s your name and who’s your sister?”

“I’m Dr. Alex Teagan. And my sister is Dr. Nikki Teagan, sir.”

John sighed. General O’ Neill had warned him about these siblings. From what he heard, trouble seemed to follow the two around, but who didn’t have trouble following them when they were in the Pegasus galaxy? “Okay, let me know if anything more is said. Have a good night.”

“Yes, sir. And you too. Thank you.” John nodded, turned and walked back to his teammates. Teyla looked up as he approached. “What was that all about, John?”

“Oh, you know. A marine had a few inappropriate words to say and her brother just happened to hear them. I’m going to find the sister now and then in an hour have a private conversation with the marine. I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

Ronon grunted, Rodney didn’t even look up from his laptop, and Teyla waved good-bye. Once John was out of earshot, Ronon spoke up, “I wonder what he’s gonna do to that Marine. We all know how Sheppard is when it comes to protecting women.”

Teyla sighed and nodded. “Yes, but by the look on the brother’s face and the look on John’s, the man may deserve it.”

SGA

John walked down the hallway towards the science labs. He found Zalenka working away at one of his numerous projects. Radek looked up as John walked into the room.

“Colonel Sheppard. What can I do for you?”

“Well, I was wondering if you could help me track down someone.”

Radek picked up his data pad and swiveled in his chair to face the Colonel. “Of course. Who do you need to find?”

John walked towards the table Zalenka was working at. “Dr. Nikki Teagan. There was a fight just a few minutes ago involving her brother.”

“Ah, that’s not good. Give me just one second to adjust the cities internal sensors to track down specific people.”

He tapped away at his pad for a couple of minutes before he looked up. “It looks like she’s in the gym closest to the central tower with some marines.” Sheppard nodded and headed towards the door. “Thanks, Doc!”

“No problem.”

John made his way to the gym. He stopped just outside and watched as a woman with dark auburn hair fought off two men. He watched for a few minutes as the marines got their asses kicked and finally decided to intervene. “Dr. Teagan?”

She didn’t pay any attention to him, but watched as the marines went from fighting stances to attention when they realized who had entered the gym. She finally turned to see who had interrupted their sparring. “At ease, marines. How about you get yourselves washed up and get some supper.” They nodded, picked up their bags and left the gym.

“Can I help you with something?” John smirked at her attitude. She definitely wasn’t like most of the other scientists who were intimidated by him. “Actually, you can. Have you ever talked to a Lt. Gordan?”

She walked over to her bag and picked up her water bottle. “Nope. Is the name supposed to sound familiar?”

“Actually, yes. You see, there was just a fight in the mess hall between the Lt. and your brother regarding you. Happen to know what that was all about?”

She was lifting her bottle to her mouth, but froze at his words. “Fight? Is my brother okay? What happened?” John put his hands in the air and stepped closer. “He’s fine. I broke it up before any punches could be thrown. I guess the marine decided he wanted to…get quite a workout, if you know what I mean, and your brother happened to be sitting close by. Now, you’ve never met the guy before?”

She stopped to think. “Well, I just got here today. He could be one of the ones I was sparring with earlier. I don’t know any of the names of the guys I was sparring with. Some big guy with dreadlocks kept sending them in here to get their asses kicked.”

He smirked. Of course. Ronon loved to watch the marines get their asses kicked. Especially by women. He tapped his com. “Ronon, this is Sheppard. Come in.” There was a pause then Ronon’s voice came over the com. “Yeah, Shep?” He almost smiled at the little nickname Ronon had gotten into the hang of using.

“That marine that was in the fight. Was he one of the ones you sent in to fight during a sparring match earlier today against Dr. Nikki Teagan?” There was silence for a few seconds. “Yeah. Is that who it was about?”

“Sure was, buddy. Thanks, Sheppard out.”

He turned to look at Nikki. “Well, looks like he was one of the ones you were sparring with. From now on, you may want to get the names of the men you’re sparring with and kick their asses enough they won’t want to lock you in a room and pin you to the bed.”

He turned to leave, but Nikki called out for him. “Wait. Aren’t you the CMO here?”

He turned back towards her and nodded. “Good to know.” She smiled, picked up her bag, and walked right by him and out of the gym, leaving him there more confused than when he walked in.

SGA

An hour and a half later, a very embarrassed and pissed off marine exited Colonel Sheppard’s office, passing Major Lorne on his way out. Lorne stuck his head in his office. “Is this a bad time, sir?”

Sheppard looked up from where he was sitting at his desk running a hand roughly through his hair. “No, come on in, Major.”

Lorne walked in and sat down in a chair in front of the desk. “If you don’t mind me asking, sir, what was that about?”

John closed his eyes for a moment and reopened them, focusing them on his second in command. “It seems the Lt. decided to tell his friends all about what he wanted to do to a certain ‘hot as sin’ doctor on his first day here only to make the mistake of saying it within earshot of her brother. The guy’s lucky I was at the other end of the mess hall when it all went down, otherwise he’d probably be in the infirmary right about now.”

Lorne nodded his head, “I see. On his first day here?” John nodded and sighed. The things he had to deal with being in command of the military on an Ancient base in a whole other galaxy from Earth. “Let’s just say, he won’t be going off world for a while, flying the jumpers, or pretty much anything else. He’s grounded for a couple weeks to learn some manners.”

Evan chuckled at his commander’s words. Everyone knew the Colonel’s low tolerance for sexual harassment and any harassment of any kind. Well, everyone except the newcomers that is.

“Well, that ought to teach him a lesson.” John nodded and then remembered he had asked the Major to come here. “Major, have you ever heard of Nikki Teagan?”

There was a glint in Evan’s eyes when Sheppard said her name. “Yes, sir. She’s the one who’s been kicking everyone’s ass sparring. Even kicked mine earlier today. She’s good. What is she? A Lt.?” John chuckled. “Actually, she’s the female McKay with some kick ass moves and a background in medical science.”

Lorne’s eyes bugged out. “So, she’s a triple threat.” He nodded. “Yep. Let’s just hope she’s not as arrogant as Rodney. Otherwise we’ll all be in trouble.”


	2. Spidey Senses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A chemical invades Atlantis. Will John and the team be able to stop it before it wreaks irreversible havoc on the city and its inhabitants?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More fluff than the original!! Also, if you read the original Triple Threat, there will be more chapters in between the ones that were posted. I feel like there wasn't enough information about John and Nikki's relationship before Chapter....3? Yeah, I believe it's the third chapter. So, I will be writing a completely new chapter that NO ONE has read before.

** Chapter 2 **

A couple of weeks went by with the city being uncharacteristically calm and silent. The new members of the expedition had plenty of time to acquaint themselves with the new technology and their new home without the impending threat of the city blowing up, being attacked by alien species, virus’ spreading havoc, you name it.

John walked into Elizabeth’s office early one morning. “Does anything feel...off to you?”

Elizabeth looked up from her laptop and eyed the Colonel. “Not particularly. Why? Are you itching to go find us another problem to solve?” Sheppard starting pacing the floor in her office.

“It’s just that my spidey senses are tingling. I don’t know...maybe it’s just because everything’s been so...boring lately...”

There was a beat before Dr. Weir picked up on his hesitation. “But…?”

He stopped pacing and looked at her. “Something doesn’t feel right.” She closed her laptop and clasped her hands together on her desk. “I don’t know, John. Maybe we finally just caught a break for once. Why don’t you take the rest of the day off. Relax, spend time with your team. Maybe get to know some of the new people a little more. You never know, maybe it’s just that you’re getting anxious from having so much downtime.”

John stopped and thought about what she was saying. “Maybe you’re right. But if my spidey senses are tingling for a reason, you owe me a beer.” She smiled and nodded. “You have a deal. Now go relax.”

John made his way to the door. “Yes, ma’am.”

He made his way to the mess hall to join his teammates for breakfast. When he arrived, the first thing he saw was Lt. Gordan marching over to where Nikki Teagan sat with some of her colleagues. He spun her chair around, grabbed her head between his hands and planted his mouth on hers. Immediately she started struggling against him, but he held her to him.

John ran over to them and grabbed Lt. Gordan by the shoulders.  “That’s enough, Lt.!” As soon as Sheppard’s hands touched him, he snapped. Gordan let go of Nikki and then spun around so fast it was almost inhuman. He punched John across the jaw and sent him sprawling on the ground as if he were in basic training and not the CMO of an alien base. Gordan straddled John before he could move and starting punching the hell out of him. His strikes were so fast there was no way Sheppard could block him. Several marines tried prying him off of the Colonel, but he was too strong.

Ronon burst from his seat, crossed the mess hall in seconds and tackled Gordan to the ground. Vaguely he heard someone radio for a med team, but that was the last thing he heard before everything went dark.

 

About 4 hours later, John woke up in the infirmary with a nasty headache. He opened his eyes and looked around. Beckett was standing across the room talking to Rodney, Ronon, and Elizabeth. He looked to the other side of the room and saw Teyla talking to Nikki and Alex Teagan.

He tried to sit up, but a sharp pain split through his skull and he squeezed his eyes shut. He tried to stop a soft moan from escaping his lips, but he failed. In seconds Dr. Beckett was standing over him with Elizabeth right behind him.

“How do you feel, Colonel?” He opened his eyes and made contact with Beckett.

“Like I was punched with inhuman strength and then pummeled like a first year. What the hell got into him?”

“That’s what we’re still trying to figure out. There’s nothing out of the ordinary about his scans, but we’re keeping him isolated until further notice.”

Now it was Elizabeth’s turn to speak. “John, what exactly happened?” He finally managed to sit up with a little help from Carson. He looked around to see that Teyla, Nikki, Alex, Rodney, and Ronon had also joined the conversation. “Well, I went to the mess hall right after leaving your office. When I walked in, I saw Gordan walk over to the good doctor, spin her around and kiss her. I figured it was just a happy greeting. Until she started to struggle. And then I remembered the little discussion I had to have with the Lt. the first day he got here.”

Rodney interrupted before he could continue, “Was that about the fight in the mess hall?” John nodded and continued, “I told him that’s enough and grabbed his shoulder to move him away from her. As soon as I touched him...it was like he just snapped. He spun around so fast I didn’t realize what was happening until I was laying on the ground with a sore jaw. Before I could move, he straddled me and was beating the hell out of me. I’ve never seen anyone move that fast. Last thing I heard was someone calling for a medic and then lights out.” He turned and looked at Elizabeth. “Oh, and you owe me a beer.”

She sighed and nodded her head. “Yes, I do. From now on I’ll trust your spidey senses.” John smirked at her. “Good.”

“Whoah, wait a minute now. Spidey senses? Is there something I should know here?”

“Calm down, Doc. I just had a feeling this morning that something was about to happen. I went and told Elizabeth here about it, but she told me it was probably just the boredom talking and sent me on my way. And then as soon as I got to the mess hall, the suspicion was confirmed.”

Ronon looked back and forth between Elizabeth and Sheppard. “Wait, so you knew something was going to happen…” He turned and looked at Elizabeth, “And you played it off as nothing?”

She blushed slightly and nodded. “And that was obviously a mistake. But, how about we divert our efforts into trying to figure out why the Lt. all of a sudden felt the urge to sexually assault someone and then pounce on the Colonel.”

“I agree with Dr. Weir. There has to be some explanation for why Lt. Gordan suddenly attacked by Dr. Teagan and the Colonel.”

“Aye, Teyla, you’re right, but nothing’s coming up in the tests I’ve run. Rodney, have you checked the database for something like this?”

Rodney looked up from his data pad. “Actually, that’s what I’m doing right now. So far nothing, but it’s only one case, so therefore there’s only a limited amount of data I can use to search for. There’s a good chance it might happen again or has happened and we just don’t know about it yet.”

As if on cue, Major Lorne walked in supporting the weight of Dr. Zalenka. “Doc! We could use some help over here!”

Beckett rushed over to them. Lorne had a cut on his temple with blood dripping down his face, but otherwise looked fine. Radek was only partially conscious and was suffering from an even greater head wound and a gash on his thigh.

“Oh mercy! What happened?”

Ronon rushed over and helped the major with Zalenka. They carried him over to a bed and laid him down. “Radek and I were talking about some idea he had about an improvement to the jumpers. He barely started talking about it before one of the scientists went crazy. She started throwing things: computers, chairs, trays, you name it. I tried dodging to get to her to try to calm her down, but she got me with some kind of tool. She shoved me against the wall before I knew what was happening and tried running out of the lab. She threw Zalenka into the wall across the room and he crashed down on a table.”

Ronon turned his attention on Lorne, “Literally threw him into the wall?” Lorne looked up at the big guy and replied, “Yeah, picked him up and just hurled him across the room as if he didn’t weigh a thing.”

Sheppard looked up at Rodney. “Well, there you go, Rodney. There’s another case of inhuman strength with a dose of insane for you to add to your search.”

McKay nodded and started typing furiously on his data pad.  Lorne looked over at the Colonel as if just noticing he were there. “Colonel! What happened to you?”

John turned and looked at his second in command. “You haven’t heard the whole city talking about it?”

Lorne moved closer to the bed. “No, sir. Dr. Zalenka and I took a trip over to the main land for a while so he could run some test on something. We’ve been gone since 0700, sir. When did this happen?”

John looked down at his watch, “Oh, I’d say about 0730. Gordan attacked Nikki in the mess hall, so I stepped in. Damn Gordan knocked me to the ground before I could even blink. Straddled my legs and knocked me around a bit before the big guy tackled him.”

Evan’s brow furrowed. “So, what? Are we dealing with some kind of epidemic? That can’t be a coincidence.” Elizabeth crossed her arms. “No. It can’t. Let’s get to the bottom of this before more people get seriously hurt.”

Alex spoke up for the first time during the entire conversation, “Major, who was it that attacked you?”

“It was Dr. Lisa Cavanaugh. She took off from the lab. There was no way I could catch up to her.”

Sheppard nodded and looked over at a nurse. “Can I go? I just got knocked around a little. I’m fine.” She walked over and checked his vitals and then the stitches on the side of his face. She looked over at Beckett and saw that he was busy with Radek. “Your vitals are fine. I’m going to give you some aspirin for the headache. Come back if it gets worse or persists, got it?”

He nodded and swung his legs over the side of the bed. He stood up and swayed a little. Thankfully, the only ones who noticed him sway were Lorne and Nikki. Lorne put a hand on the Colonel’s arm to brace him as Nikki gave him a worried look. Sheppard nodded at Lorne and sent a reassuring smile towards Nikki as he righted himself.

“Okay, let’s get to the bottom of this before I start going crazy myself.”

They all left the infirmary, minus Lorne, leaving Beckett to his patients. Walking down the hallway, John turned to Rodney. “Have you found anything yet?”

Rodney glanced up, “What are you crazy? I’ve barely had two minutes to search with the new information from Lorne. Give me a few minutes.”

“Rodney. Lorne, Radek, and I got lucky. The next person may not be. We need to find out what the hell is going on here and figure out a way to stop it.” He turned to Elizabeth, “Elizabeth, I suggest we suspend gate travel until all of this is resolved. We don’t want to spread whatever this is across the galaxy.”

“Agreed. I’ll go make the order myself.”

Right before she left the group to head to the control room, John grabbed her arm. “You’re not going anywhere alone. Not until this is over. Nikki, you can kick some ass. Go with her.”

“Yes, Colonel.” He turned and looked at her. She had a smug look on her face and winked at him as her and Dr. Weir walked down a separate corridor on their way to the control room.

He shook his head and made a mental note to try to figure out what was with the winks she kept sending him as he turned to look at Alex. “I want you to go around and try to keep people calm. They’re probably going to panic soon and that’ll just make things worse.”

Alex nodded and made his way to the transporter that would take him to the mess hall. Perfect place to start.

Sheppard and his team made their way to Rodney’s lab. They didn’t come across anyone who had suddenly gotten any violent urges, which was a good thing, but who knew how this thing spread, what it was doing to their people, or how to stop it.

They got to the lab and Rodney set up more laptops. He started reconfiguring the sensors that way they would be alerted when a major outburst happened.

Sheppard turned to Ronon, “We need to get to the weapon’s room. Get some stunners so we don’t have to use bullets on our own people.”

“Agreed.”

Teyla walked up to John. “I will stay here with Rodney in case anyone should try to attack him while he is working. I will contact you in case we’re alerted to an outburst.”

Sheppard nodded and moved towards the door. “Sounds like a plan. Keep in touch.”

Him and Ronon exited the lab and made their way to the weapon’s room. Still everything was quiet. And then a woman was thrown over a railing and landed an entire story beneath. Sheppard rushed down the stairs and searched for a pulse. Ronon pulled out his gun and tried to target the woman who had thrown the other woman over the railing. She was already at the other end of the corridor and gaining speed. He fired once and it hit her between the shoulders.

It didn’t even seem to faze her. He fired two more times before she finally went down with a tumble of her own. Sheppard appeared at Ronon’s side. He looked down and asked about the woman who had fallen. Sheppard simply shook his head and made his way towards the woman Ronon had stunned.

She was laying there unconscious, but otherwise unharmed. “Medical team to levels 24 and 25.”

He stepped over her and walked into the weapon’s room. He grabbed a stunner for himself, one for Ronon and one for Teyla.

They made their way back to the science lab and he handed Teyla the stunner. “Any other outbursts besides the one we took care of?”

She turned and looked at the screen. “Not that I have seen. What is the plan now?”

John seemed to contemplate the options for a moment before answering. “Ronon and I will head up to the control room. Any outbursts or any progress, let me know.” She nodded and went back to monitoring the cities sensors for any signs of sudden outbursts.

Once in the control room, John and Ronon found people unconscious, but alive scattered among the floor. It was clear there had been a fight. He reached up and tapped his com. “Elizabeth, this is Sheppard. Please respond…Elizabeth, this is Sheppard. Please respond…Dr. Nikki Teagan, please respond. Nikki Teagan, I repeat. Please respond this is Colonel Sheppard.”

He turned and looked at Ronon. “Nothing.”

“What do we do now, Sheppard?”

John looked around at everyone laying on the floor. “Medical team to the control room. Several wounded.” He turned back to Ronon. “You check and make sure they’re alive. I’ll check communications just in case.”

He picked up one of the laptops that had been knocked to the ground. Surprisingly it was still intact. He pulled up communications and found out that they had been manually disabled. There was no way for him to contact anyone on base. “New plan. Let’s head back to the weapon’s room and get radios. We’ll distribute them to Rodney, Teyla, Lorne, Stackhouse, and anyone else we may need to contact. We’ll set up a base in the mess hall. That’s where Alex was heading when we separated.”

They acquired the radios and distributed them to the infirmary, Lorne, Markham, Teyla, and Rodney.

“Sheppard! I know what it is.” John clicked on his radio. “Good! What is it?”

“It’s some kind of chemical that messes with the chemicals in the brain. That’s why people are turning violent. This thing spreads through touch, so chances are we all have it by now. The database says it only works on those who don’t possess the ancient gene. Well, that’s a relief. At least the entire base isn’t about to go nuts.”

“No, but most of it is and those aren’t good odds. Is there a cure or antidote? Anything to stop this?”

There was a long pause of silence. “Rodney!”

“Yes, hang on! I’m still trying to figure that one out. I’m going to send this information to Beckett. Maybe he can figure something out.”

“Good idea. We’re heading to the mess hall to set up a control center. Meet us there.”

“Understood. McKay out.”

Ronon glanced over at Sheppard. “Well, at least we know what it is now.”

“Well aren’t you ever the optimist.” Ronon grunted and continued walking towards the mess hall.

 

Once the control center was established and several people were relocated to the mess hall for refuge, they started to formulate a plan. Elizabeth and Nikki walked in right as they were working through their options.

John looked up and saw Weir’s panicked expression and Nikki’s more calm and in control expression. He took a wild guess and assumed they had been attacked or very nearly on their way here.

A good portion of the base made it to the mess hall. About one fourth of the expedition had fallen “ill” due to the chemical and they were running out of options and out of time.

“Colonel! Do we know what this thing is yet?”

“Where the hell have you two been?! And yes, we do. We’re working out a plan now.”

Nikki stepped up beside John. “When we got to the control room, it was under attack. I didn’t want to take the risk of Dr. Weir getting hurt so we snuck out undetected and hid in the jumper bay for a while, waiting for the control room to empty. And then I figured you’d set up a control center here and we’ve been trying to make our way here ever since.”

John nodded and turned back to the group. “Okay. What are our options?”

Rodney looked up from his pad, “Well, we could set the self-destruct and abandon the city. You know...as a last option.” Weir stepped into the group. “That’s not an option. What else?”

There was silence. And then Nikki spoke up. “Has Dr. Beckett or McKay found any sort or antidote for it?”

McKay looked back up from his pad. “No, I have not. I have been looking, but there’s nothing here! I think we’re on our way on this one, Colonel.”

John nodded and looked around at everyone. He pressed the button on his radio, “Beckett, this is Sheppard, come in.”

“This is Beckett.”

“Doc, have you come up with anything we could use against this thing?”

There was a moment’s pause and then, “Aye, I have, but you’re not gonna like it.”

 

Half an hour later, Sheppard, his team, Elizabeth, and Nikki were all standing in the infirmary standing around Carson’s lab table. “Okay, Doc. Let’s hear it.”

Beckett looked up at the Colonel. “Rodney was wrong. There was something in the database. He just looked right over it. I would have too if I hadn’t have been looking back over it a dozen times since I first got it. All we have to do is release a certain chemical into the air. That chemical will counteract the effects of the chemical that is now affecting them.”

“Okay, get to the part that I’m not going to like.”

“It has to be administered by those with the ancient gene. Otherwise the effects of _that_ chemical will cause serious side effects.”

Rodney about jumped for joy. “That’s it? That’s all we have to do?”

“Sadly, no. Since not everyone who doesn’t have the gene has been infected by this damned chemical, we can’t simply put it through the air vents. That would be disastrous. The only other way is to inject each person infected by the chemical from a syringe. And that’s where the tricky part comes in. You’ll have to get close enough to them to inject them.”

Ronon looked up at the doctor, “Wait, why do we have to have the ancient gene in order to inject with a needle?”

“The new chemical omits a type of pheromone, even in liquid state. For anyone who does not possess the ancient gene to come into contact with that pheromone would be bad. Very bad.”

John was getting tired of this. “Okay. That means Elizabeth, Teyla, and Ronon, you’re sitting this one out. Rodney, better get over your fear of needles fast and learn how to use them. Nikki, do you have the gene?”

She looked up at the Colonel and saw hope in his eyes. “Yeah, and from what I hear, I have a pretty strong dose of the stuff too.”

“Aye, hers is almost as strong as yours, Colonel. The three of you will have to be fast and make sure all of the chemical gets into their system.”

They spent the next fifteen minutes being given a lesson in Needles and Injections 101.

Teyla and Ronon took Elizabeth back to the mess hall, just to be on the safe side. John, Rodney, and Nikki got geared up and set up a way to convert the life signs detectors from the jumpers into sensors that would tell them if someone was infected by the chemical.

Once they got the detectors and then configured them properly, they split up. There were at least thirty people they had to inject with the new chemical. They each got ten a person. Before they went their separate ways, Sheppard turned and looked at the two. “Every time you inject one, radio it in. Understood? That way we can keep tabs on how many are left. And make sure your position is known to this group so there aren’t any more problems.”

They nodded their heads and split up. Five minutes into the searching, Nikki’s voice came over the radio, “Got my first one and am coming up behind the second.”

John pressed his radio, “Copy that. I’m about to get my first. Rodney?”

There was silence for a moment. “Yeah, just got my first. I hope.”

“You hope? Did you get ‘em or not?”

More silence... “Yeah, I got ‘em. Moving onto the second.”

Soon they had injected twenty-four out of the thirty people. They had only run into few problems so far, but that was when their luck turned.

The one John was after snuck up behind him, shoved him against the wall and tried biting his neck. He braced one arm against the woman holding him, keeping her a little distance away from him, but she was strong. She was quickly overcoming his strength. He barely managed to reach around, grab the next injection, and stick it into the side of her neck before she knocked his arm loose and actually bit him. He screamed out in pain at the same time she did from his stabbing her with the needle. Their cries echoed through the empty hallways as he shoved her body away from him. He watched as she crumpled to the ground in an unconscious heap.

“Sheppard! Was that you? Are you okay? What happened?!”

He reached up for his radio. “Well...one of them just took a chunk out of my neck. I’m fine. She’s down. I think they’re getting territorial. Watch your six.”

Rodney radioed in, but John had yet to hear from Teagan. She wasn’t responding to her radio. “Rodney, can you locate her?”

“Hang on, let me check.”

A minute goes by and then the radio clicks. “Yeah, she’s…about two levels below you with...oh god. There’s three of them in the same room as her. You better get down there, Sheppard!” Rodney hadn’t even finished his sentence and John was already running full steam down the levels toward her.

He stopped outside one of the rooms on that level when he heard scuffling. He peered in and saw Nikki jab the needle in her hand into the side of the man’s neck who was standing in front of her. There was also another man sneaking up behind her and another one coming from the right side.

The man behind her lurched for Nikki, knocking into her and sandwiching her between the man she just injected and the man that attacked her. The man was clawing at her back, trying to tear her apart it seemed while the third lunged for the group, slamming them all into the opposite wall. One of them was unconscious and simply slumped to the floor, but the other two were well-trained marines with lots of vigorous muscle underneath the inhuman strength of the chemical.

Right before the man who was trying to claw into her snapped her neck, John lunged forward, slamming into the marine who’d pinned the other them to the wall. He reached for one of the needles and quickly jammed it into his neck, releasing the chemical into his system. A moment later, his body slumped underneath the Colonel. He didn’t waste time and was instantly on his feet and spinning towards Nikki and the other conscious marine.

The marine had Nikki’s arms pinned beside her, she was helpless and she knew it. The man was too powerful with the chemical running through his system for her to be able to do anything. She was strong, but she was no match for inhuman strength wrapped in a marine.

He ran up behind them, rammed a new needle into the side of the marine’s neck, and watched as he went down without a fight.

He looked up at Nikki who just stood there speechless. “Are you okay?” She nodded and looked down at the man lying on the floor. “Thanks. He almost killed me.”

“Nah, I wouldn’t let that happen.”

She looked up and saw the blood running down the Colonel’s neck from where the woman had biten him. She moved towards him and grabbed one of the bandages from her tact vest. “Here, hold still. You’re bleeding.”

“I am?”

He reached up to his neck, and sure enough there was blood. He’d completely forgotten about the woman biting him with everything that had happened afterwards. He stood there as she pressed the bandage to his neck, wrapped it around his neck, and fastened it to keep it on. “There. That should do until we’re done and Dr. Beckett can get you patched up.”

“Now it’s my turn to thank you.” She smiled up at him and nodded, her hands still resting on either side of his neck from securing the bandage. “Why yes, yes it is.” He smiled and they just stood there for a few moments just staring at each other smiling, forgetting about what was going on around them.

And then Rodney’s voice came over the radio, making both of them jump, “Sheppard? Teagan? Hello!!”

They both jumped apart slightly and John reached down to clicked his radio. “We’re fine, McKay. We got all three of them. Two left. We’ll go after the one closest to us. You got the last one?”

McKay snorted. “Yeah. Sure. Why not. Let’s just get this over with so I can take a nice long nap and eat a club sandwich that has my name on it.” John rolled his eyes and looked down at his sensor. The other one was one level down.

They made their way down there quickly and quietly. Nikki went for one side while he went for the other. She accidentally stepped on something and it broke, making a loud, echoing noise in the room. The woman stopped and turned in her direction, then slowly moved towards her location. John jumped out from behind the crates he was hiding behind and stabbed the needle into her neck. Right as she dropped to the floor, Rodney radioed them saying he was done.

They made it back to the infirmary and told Beckett where all the people had dropped so his med teams could go find them. He waved off Carson’s inquiries about his neck and quickly left the infirmary when he was distracted with something. He and Nikki made their way to the mess hall and informed everyone it was safe and that the threat had been eliminated.

Mass cheering went up in the mess hall and he sank down into a chair, exhausted. Nikki joined him and soon the rest of the team did as well. Elizabeth walked over to their group. “Nice work, you two.

He shared a look with Nikki before looking up at her. “Thanks. So, Elizabeth. When do I get that beer?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay Tuned.


	3. Melissa Stevens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John has a girlfriend. But...is she really what he wants in a girlfriend?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking forever and a day to update. I decided to add in some chapters between the last chapter and the a couple of chapters from now. And then I started on chapter 5, then on chapter 4, and I wrote and came up with the idea for this chapter in a couple of hours today....so! I hope you enjoy! Shouldn't be too long before chapter 4 is up! Thanks for reading!

**Chapter 3**

John walked into the mess hall as he did every morning after his run with Ronon. They had gone their separate ways fifteen minutes ago to shower, change, and then meet back up for breakfast.

He made his way through the line, getting a bowl of cereal and a cup of coffee, as was usual. He immediately spotting his table full of their usual people: Teyla, Ronon, Nikki, and Rodney. John sighed inwardly as he noticed that one person in particular wasn’t sitting at the table: Melissa.

They’d started dating a month and a half ago when she had gotten up the courage and asked him to have dinner with her. He hadn’t seen the harm in it, so he’d agreed. They’d had a good time, so he figured he might as well get back into the game and enjoy himself for once. He’d asked her on a second date, a third, and then a fourth. They’d been officially together for about three weeks now and the gossip mill was still buzzing about it.

It turns out that no one had expected the CMO to start dating, ever.

Melissa Stevens was a very nice girl. She was bright, talented, and funny. She laughed at his lame jokes and made him smile. They hadn’t been together for that long, but already he was starting to care for her.

There was just one problem with the situation. Well, make that four problems. She had confided in him the night before that she wasn’t particularly fond of his friends, none of them. She found Ronon intimidating and she was scared of him. Teyla was too calm and serene for her. Rodney was far too obnoxious and he was her boss, which John understood her reasons behind that one. It was hard to be able to stand Rodney for long. It took a special kind of person, he supposed. And then, there was Nikki. Melissa had accused him of sleeping with her, which wasn’t true. He’d never cheat on anyone. And besides, Nikki was his friend.

John was torn. He didn’t know what to do about the situation. He couldn’t make her sit with his friends and be unhappy the entire time and he couldn’t ditch his friends for some girl. Neither situation was right, and yet here he was, stuck in the middle.

 _This is why I don’t date,_ he thought to himself.

Melissa wasn’t in the mess hall yet, so he didn’t have that big of a decision to make yet. He sat down in his usual spot next to Nikki and across from Ronon. They greeted him good morning and he smiled back in return.

The group continued on with their conversations while John sat silent, eating his cereal and wondering what his next move would be. He liked Melissa. He really did, but was she really worth risking his friendships to be with her?

No, she wasn’t. These people had been his family since he’d met them basically. It hadn’t taken long with any of them to form deep bonds, even with Rodney. That’s what made his decision for him.

There’d be another girl, another woman, but his family was everything to him and he just couldn’t risk losing any one of them, not for a girl.

He knew it’d hurt and it’d be hard to do, but he had to do it. It’d hurt like a bitch, really. He was starting to really care for Melissa, not to mention she was the first girl he’d dating since his divorce.

He stood abruptly, startling his friends out of their conversations, and made his way out of the mess hall. He knew that if he put it off, he’d never do it. He had to do it now while he still had the nerve.

John walked through the many hallways towards her quarters. It didn’t take very long to get there, he knew the way by heart by that point. He’d been there plenty of times to pick her up for dates or just to walk with her to her lab or to the mess hall.

He rang the chime on the door and waited. There was no answer. His brow furrowed and he tried the chime again. After a long moment, the door slid open to reveal Melissa standing in her robe, her hair slightly a mess as if she’d just gotten up.

“John! What a surprise! What are you doing here?”

“I came to talk. Did I wake you up?”

She glanced back towards her unmade bed and nodded, “Yeah, I overslept. I didn’t hear my alarm. Late night in the lab last night.”

He nodded, his spidey senses starting to tingle and alert him that something wasn’t right. “Melissa, we need to talk.”

She nodded, “Yeah, okay. Um, can it wait a little bit? I mean, I’m running late since I overslept and I’m supposed to be in the lab working. You know McKay. He’ll have my head.”

“I’ll tell Rodney it was my fault. Mel, we really need to talk.”

She glanced at her bathroom door for the briefest moment, but he caught it. “Okay, but just real quick. We’re working on something exciting and I want to get back to it.”

He stepped into her room and caught the smell of something. He didn’t react to it, keeping his eyes open for signs as to what was going on.

They walked over to her couch and sat down. “So, what’s up, John?”

He took a deep breath to try to steady his nerves. He was never good with things like this. “Mel, I don’t…I’ve been thinking…”

He trailed off as he caught sight of a condom wrapper on the floor by her bed. It looked like someone had tried to shove it under the bed, but hadn’t done a good enough job of it. And that’s when he knew what that smell had been. It was a man’s cologne.

In the time that they had been together, they hadn’t made it to the stage where they slept together yet. The farthest they’d gone was a make-out session that had only lasted ten minutes before he’d been called away.

John didn’t wear cologne, so it wasn’t his. His eyes narrowed and he stood up. He walked over to the edge of the bed, bent over, and picked it up. He stared at it for a moment, letting it really sink in that he wasn’t seeing things.

He turned around and walked into the bathroom and found one of the scientists sitting on the edge of the tub, half naked. The man looked up at him frightened, his mouth open in shock.

John turned around and glared at Melissa. “You’re kidding me, right?”

She jumped up from the couch and moved over to him. “John, it’s not what you think!”

“It’s not what I think?! Really? You’re going with that? Then why is there a condom wrapper when we’ve never slept together? Or how about the half-naked man in your bathroom? Care to explain that one?”

She stomped her foot and clenched her fists. “It’s none of your business!”

He stared at her for a moment in shock. “None of my business? Melissa, I’m your boyfriend and you’re sleeping with another man. Like hell it’s none of my business!”

Her resolve broke. Apparently, she’d expected that to work. “John, baby, please! I’m sorry! Please forgive me! It’ll never happen again!”

He shook his head at her, “No, it won’t. Because I’m breaking up with you. That’s what I came here to do anyway and you just reinforced my decision.”

He started making his way towards the door when she stepped in front of him, blocking his path. “John, please, don’t do this!”

He shook his head, “Even if I hadn’t been planning on breaking up with you, there’s no way in hell I’d stay with you after this. You lost all trust I had for you and you’ll probably never get it back. Melissa, I suggest you get out of my way.”

“You won’t hurt me.”

“No, I won’t. But I do know a female scientist and an Athosian leader who probably wouldn’t hesitate and would be here in minutes if I asked.”

She crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Fine. Go ahead and call them. They won’t do anything. They’re not brave enough. Dr. Weir will kick them out of the city if they harm a civilian.”

He shook his head, “I’m not calling going to call them here just because you’re being immature about this.”

“Fine. I will then.” She reached up and hit her com. “Dr. Nikki Teagan and Teyla Emmagan, this is Melissa Stevens. Can you please come to my quarters immediately? The Colonel is being unreasonable.” She clicked off her com, not waiting for a response.

“Unreasonable? You think I’m being unreasonable?”

She smirked at him, her mood changes were starting to give him whiplash. “Yes, and that is what I’ll tell Dr. Beckett. I’ll tell him you’re delusional and are making things up. That something is wrong with you.”

She turned towards the bathroom. “Babe, might want to get out of here before people show up!”

The man walked out of the bathroom and quickly searched for his clothes. John glared down at Melissa. “You really think that Carson and everyone else are going to believe your word over mine? Who do you think you are?”

She smiled wickedly at him, “I think I’m your worst nightmare.”

“No, more like someone who needs to be locked up in a padded room with a straight jacket.”

The man had found his clothes and was quickly getting dressed when Nikki and Teyla arrived. Nikki hadn’t bothered with the chimes and had slid it open, revealing the scene in front of them.

John looked down at Melissa. “Looks like your plan failed there. What’s your excuse going to be this time? I held you captive?”

She turned her angry eyes towards him, “You’re just upset that you can’t have me!”

A smile of his own graced his face, but it wasn’t a normal smile. “You really think I want you after all of this?”

Teyla’s voice made him look up at them. “John, what is going on?”

“I walked in to find her cheating on me. Then after I broke up with her and tried to leave, she blocked my way to the door. She said I wouldn’t hurt her, which is true, but I said I know two women who wouldn’t be too happy with the situation and could help me out. That’s when she called you. She won’t let me leave and she’s trying to turn everything around on me.”

Melissa looked up at him and took a step closer. “Well, if you had just done what boyfriends are supposed to do, none of this would have happened!”

He shook his head at her incredulously, “You’re saying that if I had slept with you, you wouldn’t have cheated on me. Nice, Melissa. Real classy.”

Nikki walked over to the two of them to try to deflate the situation. She looked at Melissa and refrained from punching her. “I don’t know who you think you are, but I suggest you back off, Melissa. Whatever you’re trying to do isn’t going to work. So, just take a step back and we’ll figure this out like adults.”

Melissa shook her head. “John is mine. He’s not yours, Nikki. I know you want him, it’s obvious by the way you two act with each other. I’m not blind, you know.”

Nikki shook her head, “Melissa, we’re just friends.”

“Yeah, whatever. You’re not getting him, bitch.”

This turn in events left John with a headache. The change in moods and situations was making his head spin in circles. He was starting to conclude that she was bipolar and hadn’t been treated for it yet.

Melissa raised her hand to hit Nikki, but Nikki was faster. She grabbed Melissa’s arm, twisted it behind her back, and slammed her down onto the bed. Melissa kicked out her leg and knocked Nikki’s knees out from under her, making her hit the ground. She swung out her elbow and it connected with Nikki’s nose, causing blood to immediately gush from it.

Teyla raced forward as Melissa stood and prepared to deliver another blow. She grabbed her wrist, spun her around, and let her fist slam into her jaw. Her next blow was directed towards a pressure point and she applied the precise amount to make her lose consciousness.

As Melissa slipped to the floor, John bent down next to Nikki. He moved her head gently to face him and he inspected her injury to see how bad it was. “Broken nose. Here.”

He grabbed the man’s shirt that was still lying on the floor, pulled her hand away from her nose, and gently pressed the shirt against it. “We need to try and stop the bleeding.”

He looked up at Teyla. “Radio for a med team.” She nodded as he turned to look at the other scientist. “And you, you’re not going anywhere, so have a seat where I can keep an eye on you.”

He nodded, frantically, terrified from what he’d just witnessed.

John looked back at Nikki and lowered his voice. “Are you okay?”

She nodded, “Yeah, I’ll be fine. I’ve had worse. What about you?”

He shook his head, “I wasn’t the one in the fist fight.”

Nikki rested her hand on his arm. “John, I saw the look in your eyes when we got here and I see the look in them now. I know how affected you are by this.”

He lowered his eyes, but didn’t say anything. He really didn’t want to talk about it right at that moment.

She caught on and nodded, “We’ll talk later.”

He nodded, knowing he wouldn’t be getting out of it. He looked up at the door as Ronon and Rodney appeared in the doorway.

“What are you guys doing here?”

McKay stepped into the room and looked from person to person, “When Teyla and Nikki got called away suddenly after you had mysteriously left, we got curious. We checked a couple other places before coming here. What…exactly happened here?”

John sighed, not really wanting to go back into the story. Nikki saw his reluctance and jumped in. “John caught Melissa cheating on him, he broke up with her, she went psycho. She thought calling us here would put us on her side or something, but was sorely mistaken. She tried attacking me, I caught her attack, but she got the upper hand and broke my nose. Then Teyla jumped in and knocked her out.”

Rodney looked down at Melissa. “I always thought she needed a hug-me jacket.”

Ronon grunted and glared at the scientist sitting on the opposite side of the room. “So, what are we doing with him, Shep?”

John looked up at his friend and saw the anger in his eyes. “We’ll give him to Weir. Let her decide what do to him. Same with her.”

He stood, Nikki following suit. He looked down at her, “Come on, let’s get you to the infirmary.”

She nodded, understanding that he didn’t want to be there anymore, but didn’t exactly want to be alone either. Ronon, Rodney, and Teyla could handle a terrified scientist and an unconscious bipolar one until the med team got there.

They walked in silence for a few minutes until Nikki broke the silence. “Don’t take this the wrong way, John, but…I’m kind of glad you broke up with her.”

He looked down at her, confused. “Why’s that? Besides what happened back there.”

“Well…none of us really liked her.”

His eyes widened, “None of you liked her and you didn’t say anything?”

Nikki shrugged, “It wasn’t really our place to say anything. If you liked it, then we would put up with her. We always thought…she was a little psycho.”

He chuckled, “Next time you think my girlfriend is psycho, please let me know.”

Nikki nodded, “Deal.”

They returned to silence for another minute before Nikki couldn’t take it any longer. “So…can I ask what made you jump up and go to her quarters earlier?”

He stared ahead, but when he answered, his voice was quieter. “I was going to break up with her.”

She looked up at him, puzzled. “Why? Did something…else…happen?”

He nodded, his mind going back to the previous night. “Last night we were talking. She said something that took me by surprise. I didn’t know what to do at first, but this morning at breakfast I made a decision. I went to go break up with her before I changed my mind.”

Nikki nodded, “Can I…ask what she said?”

John smiled gently at her, finding it amusing how curious she was about everything. “She said she didn’t like any of my friends. Ronon was scary and intimidating, which I get. He is a bit intimidating at first, but really, he’s a big softy. She said Teyla’s too…calm and serene? Whatever that means. McKay is obnoxious and her boss. I get that. He can be very obnoxious and it’d be a little weird to hang out with your annoying boss off the clock with your boyfriend. And there’s you.”

Nikki looked up at him and waited for him to continue. When he didn’t, she prodded for more information. “What did she say about me?”

“She accused me of cheating on her with you. She said we’re too close to just be friends and she didn’t like it. I guess she felt threatened.”

Nikki nodded, taking it in. “Well, that’s understandable.”

John looked down at her curiously, but waited for her to continue.

“Well, I am pretty intimidating. I mean, smart, funny, kick ass, beautiful…that’s a lethal combination!”

John couldn’t help the laugh that erupted from his chest. He hadn’t been expecting that answer and it had actually helped ease his tension. He looked down at her with a smile he didn’t think he’d be using for a while. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her in close.

“Thanks, Nikki.”

“For what?”

“For kicking ass and…for being a good friend.”

She smiled up at him as they continued towards the infirmary. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope y'all liked it. It's short, I know....but the next one will be longer! It already is, hah! I should have it up soon. I hope that you continue reading!


	4. The Atlans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sheppard and the team are attacked by a mysterious group of people called the Atlans. What will happen as they fight for their lives to survive?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took awhile to get this up. It's such a long chapter....The next chapter is basically already written. I have to change a couple of details and finish up the ending, but it's basically good to go! So, I'm hoping to have it up very soon!! ^.^ I hope you enjoy!

**Chapter 4**

“So why did the Commanding Military Officer of Atlantis volunteer to go on a simple science mission with a flight time of ten hours?”

John smirked at the scientist currently sitting in the co-pilot’s chair. Of course, he wasn’t going to tell her the real reason he’d volunteered for such a simple mission.

“It was getting a little boring back in the city. Thought a nice change of scenery was in order. Plus, if something were to happen, you can rest assured that you’re in good hands.”

Dr. Nikki Teagan smiled. “What could possibly happen? All we’re doing is going to check out a few asteroids.”

John looked away from the HUD, towards Nikki. “That’s what people say before something bad happens around here. Haven’t you read any of the mission reports? Most of them happened after someone asked, ‘What could possibly go wrong?’”

Nikki rolled her eyes. “I think we can make an exception in this case.” She paused in her thinking, glancing sideways at the Colonel who had gone back to looking up at the HUD.

“But, like you said, we’re in good hands. I mean, I don’t know about you, but I can kick some ass if I need to.”

A smile slowly spread across John’s face as he shook his head. “So why are you going on this mission? I didn’t think you got too excited about asteroids.”

“These aren’t just asteroids, Colonel. They’re radioactive ones that are on a collision course with a planet surface. The mission is to figure out what kind of radiation they’re emitting and see if there’s any way to stop them or divert them somewhere else. Didn’t you read the debrief?”

John grimaced, “I skimmed it.”

Dr. Barden snorted as she rolled her eyes again, “Of course you did. You’re lucky McKay isn’t here. I’m a bit easier to get along with than him.”

His grimace turned into a smirk. “ETA nine hours. Might wanna get comfortable, Doc. It’s going to be a long drive.”

**SGA**

“Are we there yet?”

John looked over at Nikki amused. “You’re like a little kid, you know that?”

She smiled and ran a scan on her laptop. “But seriously, are we almost there? Bring up the HUD.”

He brought up the HUD as asked and nodded. “Yep. We’ll be there in about ten minutes. I’ll radio Atlantis and let them know we’ll be arriving. You never know if the radiation will cause interference or not.”

She nodded as he brought up communications on the HUD and radioed back home.

“Atlantis, this is Jumper One. We’ll be arriving at our destination in about ten minutes. Didn’t want to risk the interference and having to double back after a long trip.”

There was a moment of silence before Dr. Weir’s voice came over the radio. “This is Weir. You made excellent time, Colonel. Seems you’re actually arriving early. We weren’t expecting to hear from you for another half hour.”

John smirked in satisfaction, “Yeah, well, long drives tend to make you hit the gas a little harder.”

They could hear a faint chuckle before she responded, “I hear you. Just glad you made it in one piece. Radio back when you’ve gathered the Intel you need. Atlantis base out.”

“We need to get as close as possible to that asteroid, Colonel. You never know what diminutive amounts of radiation can be detected. Although, we want to stay far enough away we won’t suffer any side effects from it.”

Sheppard glanced back at Dr. Barden. “Side effects?”

The scientist looked up from his laptop and nodded, quite seriously. “Yes, there can be many effects from radiation depending on the kind. Some can be nausea, fatigue, hair loss, low blood count…it can even cause sterility. Although, I don’t plan on having any kids. What about you, Colonel?”

Nikki snorted as John fidgeted slightly in his seat. “Maybe someday. What about you, Dr.? Any plans for little ones in your future?”

Nikki raised an eyebrow and looked over at him, “Nope. I’ve never seen myself as the type to be able to settle down and raise a family. I mean, if I found the right guy…there’s always the possibility, I suppose, but I don’t see myself as being the motherly type, I guess.”

Sheppard brought up the course on the HUD and studied the best path around the asteroids to take without getting too close. He didn’t want anything reacting badly with the jumper’s systems and causing any malfunctions.

As they neared their destination, John spotted something off in the distance, on the other side of the asteroid. He silently sent a thought and brought it up on the HUD.

“There’s a ship on the other side. It doesn’t look like Wraith. I didn’t know this planet was populated.”

Nikki looked up from her laptop, her eyebrows furrowing. “In the Ancient database, it said there was a small group of people, nowhere near technologically sound. They were somewhere in the stage of inventing the wheel from what I grasped.”

“Well, a lot can happen in ten thousand years. That, or these people are from somewhere else and are just as interested in the asteroids as we are. Either way, let’s keep a safe distance.”

“Agreed.”

John raised the cloak around the jumper, but it was too late. The ship had moved, sensing another ship in the vicinity and has seen them cloak. The communications were activated causing John and Nikki to share a quick look before he responded.

“This is Lt. Colonel John Sheppard from Atlantis.”

There was a pause before the radio crackled and a hard man’s voice resonated through the cockpit of the jumper.

“This is Fateem of the Atlans. We ask that you lower the cloak so as to communicate without privacy.”

John’s spidey senses were starting to tingle, but he lowered the cloak as asked. He turned towards Nikki and mouthed, “ _Atlans?”_

She shrugged, knowing as much as he did about the people. He turned back to the communications and spoke into the radio. “What can we do for you, Ms. Fateem?”

“You are not welcome here. I suggest you turn around and go back to where you came from immediately.”

“We didn’t mean to cause insult. We were just checking out the asteroi-.”

“It would be wise for you to turn around now or we will be forced to destroy you.”

John’s spidey senses were on overdrive as he began to turn the ship around. “As you wish, sorry for the confusion. We’ll get out of your way now.”

As he was raising the shield, an energy burst hit the side of the jumper, damaging the cloak. “I asked that you remain uncloaked. We see this as an act of war. You will be destroyed. We will no longer bow down and remain silent. You have been warned. And now it is your time to die.”

The radio shut off as John shook his head. “Not on my watch.”

He glanced over at Nikki for the quickest second, “See, this is what happens when people ask what could possibly happen.”

Another energy blast blew by the jumper, causing it to shake violently. “Any way to switch the cloak into a shield really quick? We could really use one.”

Nikki shook her head, “It would take too long. And besides, the cloak is far too damaged to repair until we get back home.”

“Noted.” He engaged weapons and sent off two drones. Nikki watched on the HUD as the drones made their mark on the ship, but didn’t do much damage.

“How…those are some of the most powerful weapons I have ever seen and they hardly scratched that thing. Colonel, we are in big trouble.”

Another blast hit the jumper, almost knocking one of the wings off. He opened up communications as he sent off more drones. “Atlantis, this is jumper one. We are taking fire. I repeat, we are taking fire! We require immediate assistance!”

The jumper started banking towards the right, straight for the planet’s surface. Nikki jumped in to help relay information so the Colonel could concentrate. “We’re on a collision course with the planet. They aren’t Wraith, they’re inhabitants from the planet. Do _not_ engage!”

Another blast hit the jumper, sending Nikki into the side of the wall. She righted herself and continued, “Use the cloak at all times. Do _not_ let them see you!”

John barely skirted out of the way of another blast, “I’m losing controls. This is going to be a rough landing, so everybody hang on.”

Another blast hit the rear of the jumper, almost tearing off the hatch, but it remained intact. “We just lost inertial dampeners. There’s no way we’re going to survive this landing, Colonel.”

John tilted his head towards her, but remained focused on where he was going. “That’s a lake. I’m aiming for that. I hope you know how to swim.”

The radio was still active, transmitting back to Atlantis, but they hadn’t received it yet. Nikki knew it was because of the radiation and quickly calculated that they would receive it in a matter of minutes after they landed.

“Atlantis, we’re about to go down. This transmission will be delayed due to the radiation, but you should receive it only minutes after we land. These people are called the Atlans. Have Rodney dig something up on them.”

“I just lost all controls! Hang on!”

**SGA**

Teyla, Ronon, Rodney, and Evan Lorne walked into the control room at the same time and found Dr. Weir standing by one of the consoles. She looked up as they walked in and they all noticed the look of worry on her face.

When they got closer, she began. “I’m sure you all are aware that Colonel Sheppard accompanied Dr. Teagan and another scientist on a mission to study some asteroids that are giving off radiation?”

They all nodded and she continued, “We received a transmission from them saying they were ten minutes out and that everything was fine. That was nearly half an hour ago. A few minutes ago, we received another transmission. This one was delayed and we didn’t receive it until minutes after it had been sent.”

She looked down at Chuck and nodded for him to play it back for them to hear.

The radio crackled for a moment before the Colonel’s voice filled the room. His voice was raised and the tension rang clear. It was obvious as soon as they heard his voice that something was very wrong. “Atlantis, this is jumper one. We are taking fire. I repeat, we are taking fire! We require immediate assistance!”

There was a moment of silence before Nikki's voice replaced the Colonel’s. “We’re on a collision course with the planet. They aren’t Wraith, they’re inhabitants from the planet. Do _not_ engage!”

The sound of a blast filled the silence. “Use the cloak at all times. Do _not_ let them see you!”

John’s voice came back over the radio, but this time he couldn’t stop an edge of panic from seeping into his voice. “I’m losing controls. This is going to be a rough landing, so everybody hang on.” Another blast echoed back through the transmission.

“We just lost inertial dampeners. There’s no way we’re going to survive this landing, Colonel.”

John’s voice came back distracted, obviously concentrating on aiming for his target. “That’s a lake. I’m aiming for that. I hope you know how to swim.”

“Atlantis, we’re about to go down. This transmission will be delayed due to the radiation, but you should receive it only minutes after we land. These people are called the Atlans. Have Rodney dig something up on them.”

“I just lost all controls! Hang on!”

The line went dead almost immediately after John’s rushed statement.

The control room was silent for a long moment while the reality of the situation hit everyone like a steel hammer. Their friend and colleague just went down into a lake with no inertial dampeners and he was ten hours away by jumper. This was not good.

Ronon was the first to break the silence, “When do we leave?”

“Gear up and you leave as soon as you’re ready. I want Lorne’s team along with the four of you to go.”

Lorne nodded, radioing his team to get geared up to go ASAP. Elizabeth looked at Teyla before they turned to head to the locker rooms. “Bring them back.”

Teyla nodded, determined to get John and the rest in that jumper back home safe and sound.

**SGA**

Nikki opened her eyes and all she saw was blue in front of her. They had landed in the lake. She lifted her head and looked over at the pilot’s chair and found John slumped forward unconscious.

She stood and reached over to check for a pulse. When she found one, she gently started to shake him awake.

“Colonel, you have to wake up. We need to get out of here.”

He slowly started to stir and she went on to check to see if Dr. Barden was okay. She found a pulse, but he had a head injury. He woke up after a few moments looking dazed.

She stood and walked back to the Colonel who had managed to sit up. He turned towards her and she saw he also had a head injury, but that wasn’t surprising given they had just crash landed into a lake with no inertial dampeners. She was thanking her lucky stars no more damage had happened to any of them.

“Colonel, we need to get out of here before we sink any farther.”

He nodded, standing up and moving to pack a couple of extra things into his tact vest before they went for their swim. He handed a couple of extra clips to Nikki. “We won’t be able to take the p-90’s, they’ll weigh us down and we won’t be able to swim with them, so we’ll have to rely on our side arms.”

She nodded, grabbing a couple of extra clips and handing them to Dr. Barden who accepted them and stowed them away safely.

“Okay, I think we’re as ready as we’ll ever be.”

He nodded and moved to the lever to lower the hatch. “When I lower this, a lot of water’s going to come rushing in here and fast. Be sure to hold your breath before it hits you and hold on to something so you don’t get slammed into anything. As soon as you can move, go. Don’t wait for anyone else, just get yourself out of here. Is that clear?”

Both of the scientists nodded, grabbing onto something sturdy. They watched as he grabbed onto a bar near the lever, took a deep breath, and pulled it.

Water came rushing in immediately and flooded both compartments. John was slammed against the wall, but had enough purchase not to be swept back into the front of the jumper. He pushed off from the wall and started swimming out of the jumper and up towards the surface. They weren’t too far down, maybe one hundred feet or so. He made it up to the surface and took in a deep breath of air. He looked around and didn’t see anyone else emerge from the water, so he took in a big gulp of air and dove back under.

He saw Nikki a little ways from him trying to swim back towards Dr. Barden who was unconscious and falling back through the water. He’d seen it plenty of times before to know that they were already too late. There was too much water in his lungs by that point and they didn’t have a hard flat surface to lay him on to try to pump out the water. There was nothing they could do for the scientist but try to survive and hope none of it happened in vain.

He reached Nikki fairly quickly and grabbed her arm. She twisted around to look at him and he shook his head, conveying to her that it was too late. Her eyes widened in regret, but accepted it. They turned back and started heading back up to the surface.

By this point, Nikki was too far down and had been holding her breath for too long. As her lungs started to burn uncontrollably, she pulled on John’s arm, panicked.

He saw the look in her eyes and knew what was happening. He pulled her up to him and, without thinking too hard on it, pressed his mouth to hers, opened her mouth as far as he dared and gave her some of his air. She didn’t need a whole lot, just enough to get her to the surface.

When they broke apart, they didn’t waste any time and went straight up towards the surface. When they broke the surface, they both took in deep breaths trying to regain themselves. John recovered first and looked around for the closest point to shore.

“Okay, let’s go that way. It’s the shortest distance to shore. Once there we’ll find cover in case they come looking for us.”

She nodded and started heading towards shore. They swam in silence, both trying to keep their breathing as normal as possible and concentrated on making it to shore before they both drowned from exhaustion.

It didn’t take very long for them to reach the shore, but when they did their muscles ached horribly.

“Okay, five minute break. Then we find shelter to wait out the…I’d say we’re down to nine hours by now. Give or take a few minutes.”

Nikki nodded as she laid back on the sand, draping an arm over her eyes and thanking her lucky stars that the sun was up high in the sky. It was making good work of drying their clothes and warming them up from the cold water.

John looked over at her and could tell by how tense she was that she was blaming herself. He’d been in the same situation plenty of times to know the signs. “Don’t.”

She moved her arm to rest on her forehead and turned to look at him. “What?”

He lowered his head as he sat, knees bent and arms resting on them. “Don’t blame yourself. It’s not your fault he didn’t make it. If you want to blame someone, blame the people who shot us out of the sky.”

She stared at him for a long minute, not saying a word. “How do you do it?”

He raised his eyes and met her gaze. “Do what?”

“How do you deal with it? I know you’ve lost a lot of people under your command and I know it can’t be easy. How do you cope?”

John took a minute to think it over. “I make sure it wasn’t in vain.”

“How do we do that?”

“We survive and we go home. We tell his loved ones he didn’t die alone and that he didn’t suffer, that is was a quick death. Even if we have to lie, that’s easier than knowing the truth. We don’t let his memory die and we don’t die ourselves. That’s how we do it.”

She nodded, sitting up and moving closer to him. She shivered from the cold, she could still feel it deep in her bones from being in the water so long. He saw her shiver again and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, bringing her into him. He figured they were both cold, so might as well try to warm up a bit. That, and he thought it might help her deal with the loss if she had someone to lean on, both metaphorically and literally.

She leaned into his embrace and rested her head on his shoulder. “Thanks.”

He glanced down at her, “For what?”

“For, you know, not dying. And saving both our asses. Saving mine back in the water. For the warmth. And…you know…for what you said.”

He smiled gently down at her, but she didn’t see it. She was staring out at the water that had almost killed them all. “Don’t thank me yet. I don’t think I’m done saving our asses.”

She looked up at him, her brow furrowed. “Do you think they’ll come looking for us? Think we may have survived and want to finish the job?”

“Maybe. You never know. Two minutes we’ll look up for shelter. For now, try to get warm and conserve your energy. You’ll need it.”

**SGA**

Ronon paced the small confined area in the cockpit of jumper two. He was getting restless. They’d only been in the air for a short time and already he couldn’t sit still. He couldn’t stand the thought of the man he considered a brother out there, possibly dead, after being attacked. He hadn’t been there to help him. A part of him knew there wasn’t anything he could have done. Sheppard was a pilot, the best pilot they had.

It’d been up to him to get his team to safety and if he couldn’t do it, no one could. Ronon knew that, but the fighter in him told him that he still could have been there for his friend. It told him that if Sheppard was dead, he should have been there to die with him, not find his broken body and mourn the loss. He’d done enough mourning in his years to last an entire lifetime and several more. He’d had to mourn the loss of all of his fallen brothers and sisters, all of his friends, colleagues, everyone under his command, his family, Melena, his entire planet. Sure, he later found out that many had lived, but he’d still had to live with the thought they were dead for years.

If his friend was dead, he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know if he’d stay in Atlantis, continuing his day-to-day routine, knowing his friend, the man who’d helped to save him from the Wraith countless times, the one who’d brought him back to Atlantis and given him a new purpose, given him a home and a family. If that man was never coming back…Atlantis wasn’t much of a home anymore. Not without John Sheppard.

He looked over at Teyla who was sitting still, staring out the window into space, deep in thought.

Her mind was trained on one thing: Is John alive?

She kept running through possibilities in her mind, trying to reassure herself that John can’t be dead. He’d come back from the most impossible situations alive and kicking. There was no way he wouldn’t come back from this one.

This was the man who had befriended her all those years ago in her village. She hadn’t known what to think about the others, but he had been so open and honest with her that she had had no doubt in her mind that he was a good ally and a good person.

She had stood by his side through countless fights, countless situations that seemed impossible to overcome. They had learned from each other and grown as individuals together, building a bond so unique she’d never seen it before until she met this man. He was a brother to her, nothing more, but a brother she cared deeply for. She couldn’t imagine how life would be if he hadn’t stepped through the gate that day and introduced himself to her.

Through all the times she had felt lost and hadn’t known what to do, she had turned to him for guidance and he had given it to her. She knew sometimes he had no idea what to do, but that’s when he would turn to her as well. They trusted each other explicitly and had each other’s backs no matter what. Who would she turn to if they were unable to bring him back this time?

She was broken out of her spell by the sound of Rodney furiously typing away at his laptop. He was searching through every inch of the database, trying to find anything helpful on the people who had shot down their friend. She considered saying something, but figured it would be best to leave him be.

Rodney glared at his laptop screen, yelling at it inside his mind to give them something, _anything_ , that would help them get his friends back. He always acted like he didn’t care much for anyone around him, but that wasn’t true. He just didn’t want it to show. He knew that Sheppard knew, but that’s as far as it went. They never really acknowledged it and that’s the way both men liked it.

Rodney thought back to all the times when the military would shut him out and only include him when it was almost too late to do anything. That had changed when he’d met John Sheppard. When they’d met, he’d been a major, but he’d included him with the entire process. He hadn’t left him out in the metaphoric cold to wonder what was going on.

And then John had asked him to join his team. He’d said he needed a scientist to go with them on their missions, just in case they ran across something, but the truth was…they had already started to become friends and John had wanted him on the team.

Everyone knew that Sheppard hadn’t arrived in the city with many allies. Really, he had had maybe…two? Three at the most. He had found a friend in Rodney and that had meant a lot to the scientist, even if he would never admit it to anyone.

Truth was, McKay wasn’t sure if Atlantis could thrive without the Colonel there. He was an integral part of the expedition and a friend to many. The entire city would mourn his loss if they were unable to bring him back. His death would cause major problems, there was no doubt about that.

The thing was, it wasn’t just John who had arrived in the city without many friends. He had been in the same situation. He’d had as many as Sheppard had had at the time. When he’d befriended the flyboy, he’d also been rewarded with the friendship of Teyla and Lt. Ford. A year later, he’d befriended Ronon as well. With John Sheppard came new opportunities, new friendships, and a good life.

Rodney grumbled to himself. _I’m starting to get soft thanks to Captain Kirk. Thanks a lot, Sheppard._

He rubbed a hand over his forehead, trying and failing to rub away the headache that was growing ever present in his head.

Major Evan Lorne looked over from the pilot’s seat and watched Dr. McKay work for a moment. He could see the worry lines on his forehead and beginnings of a nasty headache, which would be sure to make him even more irritable than usual.

Evan sighed as he looked back out the window. He tried to relax, knowing that he’d need all of his strength and energy when they finally reached the planet. If Sheppard had survived, chances are the people who attacked them were aware of it and planned on completing the task. Evan was completely confident in his commanding officer’s ability to protect himself and survive on his own for a while, not to mention he had possibly two others with him, depending if any of them survived the crash.

Evan wasn’t really the kind of man to send up prayers or believe in that kind of stuff, but with his commanding officer’s life, his _friend’s_ life, on the line in such a big way…he sent up a silent prayer that they get there on time.

It wasn’t just that with Sheppard gone, he’d have to step up and fill his shoes. That task alone was an impossible task. There was no one who could replace John Sheppard. He was a truly unique and inspiring leader, one who had earned the respect of everyone under his command in a short amount of time. No one even glanced at his record anymore. The only record that counted was the number of lives he’d helped to save since setting foot in the Pegasus galaxy.

Sheppard had become more than just a commanding officer to Evan. He’d become a friend. Every time something had happened off-world, it was Sheppard and his team who would come to their rescue. Every time Evan landed himself a bed in the infirmary, Sheppard had made a point to stop in and spend some time with this second in command. When the new shipment of beer came in, the two of them would get together with their teams and have a conjoined sort of party, relax, unwind after long events in the day or week. They would get together and watch old football re-runs. They’d have movie nights, sometimes with their teams, and sometimes just the two of them.

The two men had really bonded since John had picked him to be his second in command. Evan didn’t have any brothers, but if he did, he’d say his name is John Sheppard. And that fact alone drove him even harder to get back his friend.

**SGA**

“Where the hell did they even come from?”

John kept his eyes on their surroundings, looking for hiding places or traps to trip up the group of Atlans that were currently chasing them through the forest.

“I have no idea, but they’re gaining on us. We’re going to have to figure something out soon or we’ll be in big trouble.”

Nikki threw a glance behind her, measuring the distance between them and their followers. “There aren’t many. Think we can take them with our side arms?”

John thought it over for a quick moment. “That’ll use up most or all of our limited ammunition. I’d like to hold off on using it all up as long as possible. Any other ideas?”

He took a quick turn to the left, pulling Nikki along with him. As soon as they’d realized there was a group of the Atlans running towards them, John had jumped up, grabbed Nikki’s hand, and took off towards the forest. That had been a good ten minutes ago and he still had a firm grasp on her hand to make sure they didn’t get split up somehow.

“Um…it’s a forest. There aren’t many options other than shoot or hide.”

John nodded, throwing a glance behind him. When he turned back he noticed the tree line stopped not too far up ahead. He slowed their pace and approached cautiously. It was a dead-end. The ground broke off and dropped a ways before continuing through forest.

Nikki shook her head, “Now what do we do? That’s too steep to climb down.”

He looked around for anything, any way around the drop, any hiding places, but the only thing he could come up with was to hide behind the trunk of a massive tree.

He pulled her towards the tree and crouched down on the other side. He closed his eyes for a brief moment, wondering what he was supposed to do now. They could use their side arms and use up all of their bullets and be helpless when the next group of these people found them, they could let them kill them, or they could jump off the incline and hope like hell they survived.

“John, what do we do now?”

He turned and looked into her worried eyes. This was her first mission where something had gone completely sideways. Sure, she’d been raised by a military father, but she had never been in a war zone before. This was new territory for her.

Suddenly, John got an idea. “I have an idea, but you may not like it depending on the outcome.”

He was about to tell her the plan when they heard the group approaching their location. She crouched closer to him and remained as still and silent as possible.

John listened intently, trying to make out if they were coming towards them or backtracking. He heard one pair of footsteps going towards the edge of the drop off before he felt Nikki’s hand clench in his. He turned to look at her and saw a woman standing behind her with a gun pointed at her head.

He looked up at her and bit off the angry remark he wanted so badly to say. Instead, he remained as still as he could, waiting for the woman with the gun to give him some kind of instructions.

“Stand up or she dies.” Like that.

He released her hand and stood slowly, keeping his hands in the air to show he didn’t intend on making any sudden movements.

“You too. Stand up and move around the tree.” They did as they were told. What else could they do?

When they walked around the tree, they saw five other women with guns staring them down.

“Well, nice of you to join the party.”

The woman walking behind them shoved Nikki into John, silently telling him to shut his mouth. He took in the women around them, every piece of Intel was crucial to survive.

Only three of the women had their guns pointed at them. The one that had found them walked around to stand with her buddies as their radios buzzed.

“Elta respond. This is Japu, you have them yet?”

The one named Elta lowered his weapon and turned on his radio. “Yes, Japu. We just captured them.”

The other two holding weapons on them turned towards Elta, curious to see what their orders were next. This was their opportunity. Sheppard was shocked they were stupid enough to lower their weapons and look away from them.

Before any of them could see what he was doing, he reached into his vest, pulled out one of his hand grenades, pulled the pin, and let it fly. He grabbed Nikki’s arm and flung them away from the explosion that would happen in five…four…three…two…they were falling over the side of the incline as the explosion shook the ground and tore apart every one of the women that had been following them.

John wrapped his arms tightly around Nikki’s waist, securing her to him and did his best to angle them so that she landed on him and not the other way around. Thankfully, it wasn’t a straight drop from the top. John’s body made contact with the rocks, causing them to roll a couple of times before there was another gap.

They finally landed at the bottom with Nikki on top of him. The last thought that went through his mind was he was glad he hadn’t landed on her. Then his world went dark.

**SGA**

“Oh no. This…this isn’t good.”

Teyla looked over at Rodney who was frowning at his laptop. “What is it, Rodney? Have you found something?”

He turned and looked at her, “You could say that.” He turned again and looked at Lorne.

“Radio Atlantis. I need to talk to Elizabeth about this.”

Lorne brought communications up and radioed back home. “Atlantis, this is jumper two. It seems Dr. McKay has found something in the database.”

After a pause, Elizabeth’s voice came over the radio. “That’s good! What is it?”

Rodney shook his head, even though he knew she couldn’t see it. “Actually, Elizabeth, it’s not. You see, if I’m reading this correctly…I just found out why these people, the Atlans, attacked the jumper. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“Okay. What did you find?”

He looked back down at his laptop before continuing. “Back when the Ancients were still in Atlantis, a hundred years or so before they left. I’m talking pre-Wraith. There was a group of scientists who went against the board. And I don’t mean Janus. Janus was against this. This group…they brought a small group of people to the city and…performed experiments on them.”

Rodney paused a moment for that to sink in before continuing, “Now, it doesn’t say in the database what _kinds_ of experiments, probably for the sake of making themselves look better or something, who really knows-.”

“ _Rodney!_ What else did you find?”

“Right. This group of people hid the experiments from the board for as long as they could, but eventually they were found out. When the board found out what the group was doing, well sufficed to say they were not happy. At first, they weren’t sure what to do with the people. They couldn’t exactly just let them go so they could tell the galaxy how horrible the Ancients were and what they had done to them. That would ruin their reputation. Instead, they found a nice little planet out of the way that was uninhabited. They dropped off the people they experimented on, took their stargate, and went on their way. They left the people with nothing but the clothes on their backs.”

Teyla leaned forward, “You’re saying the Ancients left these people on the planet to die?”

Rodney’s frown deepened. “It looks that way. But that’s not all.”

Dr. Weir’s voice sounded over the radio, “There’s more?”

“The more I read what was in the database…the more I remembered a myth. It was about a people back on Earth. It was said that these people were benevolent by comparison and inhabited complex caverns underneath Southern Brazil. They were called the Atlans. They got their name because they were supposedly part of the antediluvian Atlantean empire.”

“The what?”

Rodney looked over at Ronon. “Antediluvian. It means extremely primitive, outdated, very very old. Anyways, the myth said the Atlans weren’t genetically related to the Ancient society. It’s also said that they’re descended from Gods, or rather what these people probably thought were Gods at that time period which would be Ancients. They believe that their Gods would rather see them dead than prosperous.”

“Yes, I remember reading about that. Agis, the leader; Bretta, his wife and the Goddess of Love, Fertility, and Health; Dyanna, Agis’ sister and the Goddess of Forest and Beasts; and Crassus, God of War and Fire. Crassus forced himself on Bretta. Ashamed, Bretta concealed it from Agis, and then later laid with him as well. They travelled in a ship and were frozen in pods over time to prolong their lives. While Bretta was frozen, the genetic material from all three of them mixed together. She became pregnant with three daughters. One had Crassus’ hair, Bretta’s eyes, and Agis’ birthmark. One had Bretta’s hair, Agis’ eyes, and Crassus’ birthmark. One had Agis’ hair, Crassus’ eyes, and Bretta’s birthmark. The daughters came from all three parents. Bretta told Dyanna to throw them into space so Agis would never know. Dyanna could not do that so she raised them on an island. When they were old enough to be able to survive, she left them on their own. When Bretta found out they were still alive, she called upon neighboring Gods to wreak havoc on their planet where many became ill or died from the molten rock. They were separated from each other over the seas where many more died. It’s said that there are still Atlans roaming Earth looking for sisters they lost during that time.”

Rodney’s brow furrowed. “Sisters? What about brothers? There have to be men in this…culture. Otherwise, how else did their numbers grow? I’m sensing a strictly feminist society here. One in which I am not looking forward to meeting.”

“Men weren’t talked about in the stories I’ve heard of these people, but there have to be some in the society. As for meeting them, I hope none of you do.”

Rodney nodded, “I agree.”

“That’s good work, Rodney. At least we know what we’re up against now. I’ll see if there’s anything more I can dig up. For now, I suggest you start making a plan on how you should go about getting our people back. Radio back in when you’re nearing the planet. And don’t forget to use the cloak, Major.”

Evan spoke up, “Yes, ma’am. I’ll turn it on an hour before we get there just to be on the safe side.”

“Good. Good luck to all of you. Atlantis base out.”

Rodney turned towards the team. “So, what’s the plan?”

**SGA**

Nikki slowly regained consciousness, but she didn’t open her eyes all the way. She couldn’t remember exactly where she was or what had happened, so she used her other senses first. She was laying on something hard, yet soft at the same time, and it was moving the slightest bit. There was something strong wrapped around her waist.

That’s when it all came rushing back: the planet, the crash, the grenade, and the cliff. She opened her eyes and sat up the slightest bit. She was laying on top of John who was still unconscious from the fall. She felt for a pulse and let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding when she felt the steady beating of his heart under her fingers.

Nikki sat up all the way, gently lowering his arms to the ground on either side of him. She was about to try to take him up when she noticed his leg. He’d broken his leg in the fall. She moved closer to inspect it better. It was bad.

She’d have to reset it before it tried to heal itself and they had to rebreak it. She got in place, positioned her hands correctly, and then used as much force as she dared to push his leg back into the proper places.

The force and pain from the resetting woke him up. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around. He couldn’t see Nikki since she was sitting by his leg, wrapping it in a bandage. That’s when he noticed that his leg was being bandaged. He leaned up and put his weight onto his left elbow.

“What happened?”

Nikki looked up when she heard his voice and smiled. “Good, you’re awake. What’s the last thing you remember?”

“Um…we were being chased through the forest by a group of women. Then I blew them up with a grenade. Not much after that.”

She nodded, looking back down as she began to tie off the bandage. “You threw us out of the way of the explosion, but we toppled over the side of the cliff. You used your body to protect me from most of the rocks. In the process, your leg was broken and we were both knocked out. I woke up a few minutes ago.”

John nodded, sitting up all the way and looking down at his broken leg. “Well, that’s going to make things more difficult. Not to mention, it hurts like hell.”

He looked around their surroundings, looking for any more groups of the Atlans, anything they could use as weapons, places for shelter, anything.

“We need to find some water and shelter. I meant to get some water before we left the lake, but didn’t get the chance to before that group showed up.”

Nikki nodded, “I agree. We need to find a safe place to rest. Maybe waste a couple of hours, buy your team some time to get here. I say we head off in that direction.”

She pointed towards the west before standing and offering him her hand. He took it carefully raised himself from the ground, trying not to bump his injured leg and cause more pain to shoot up his leg. He wrapped his left arm around her shoulders as she wrapped her right arm around his waist and grabbed his left hand for advantage.

“Sounds good to me.”

They set off towards the west, hoping they would be able to find shelter and water soon. They both still had some power bars tucked away in their vests that would hold them over until the jumper arrived for them, so they weren’t particularly worried about food.

They walked in silence for a while, just listening to their surroundings, before Nikki wanted conversation.

“So, John…got family back on Earth?”

He glanced down at her before looking back up at their surroundings. He made sure to keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. “Kind of.”

“Kind of? What does that mean?”

“A brother I haven’t talked to in about a year. Before that, we hadn’t talked since…I got my divorce.”

“You were married?”

John chuckled lightly, “Yeah, I got married when I was nineteen.”

Nikki was shocked that he’d been married before. He didn’t really seem like the type to get married. “What happened?”

“Oh you know, the usual. She thought she knew what she was getting into, marrying an Air Force pilot. Then they started sending me on top secret missions around the world. When I would come home exhausted and wasn’t able to tell her where I was or what I was doing, it’d just piss her off. We’d get into fights as soon as I walked through the door it seemed. After about six years, we both just got sick of it.”

She nodded, “What about your brother? Why don’t the two of you talk?”

John was silent for a long minute. “When we were kids, we were the best of friends. He was my little brother. We did everything together, except when he would spend time with our dad and I would spend time with our mom. They were married, but Dave was always curious about the family business and I was always more interested in whatever my mom was doing.”

“So, then what happened? Why did you two grow apart?”

“Our mom died when I was fifteen. Dave was twelve. It hit the family hard. Dad pushed our mom’s side of the family away, I didn’t see them for about a year when I graduated from high school and went off to Stanford.”

Nikki stopped walking and looked up at him. “Wait, you graduated from high school when you were sixteen and then went to Stanford?”

He looked down at her, his eyebrow raised, “Yeah. Why is everyone so surprised I have a brain?”

“I wouldn’t say surprised, more…taken off guard. You don’t show it off, but I guess I’m not that shocked. You come with a lot of surprises I’m finding.”

He chuckled and continued his story as they started walking again. “Dave took it hard when I went off to college, but I didn’t have anything keeping me there other than him. I knew he’d be okay with Dad since they got along great, so I left. I went and stayed with my uncle and his wife while I went to Stanford. A year after I started there, I joined the Air Force. I had my uncle sign for me so I could join earlier. Best decision I ever made. Dad and I fought every time we talked, so I started to stay away even more. I married Nancy when we were nineteen because…well, I thought I loved her. That, and Dad kept nagging me about it.  I guess a part of me wanted to finally make him happy. Which it did, for a while. Then, all he wanted was to finally get grandkids. The last time I ever saw him was the day I told him I was getting a divorce. He told me to get out, so I did. I didn’t hear anything from them until about a year ago when I got word that my dad had a heart attack and passed away. Ronon and I went back for the wake. Of course, Dave thought I was there to challenge the will. We got into a fight. I ended up having to leave to deal with some replicator business, but I went back when it was over. We talked, civilly. He said he’d write, he never did. I didn’t push.”

Nikki nodded, letting all of the information sink in. She knew that he was a private person and didn’t talk about himself all that much. When he did, you better be paying attention because chances are, it won’t happen again for a long time. When he decides to open up, you better be willing to be there or else he might not open up again.

“Okay, so then tell me about this ex-wife.”

He looked down at Nikki with a smirk on his face. “Why are you so interested in my past?”

She shrugged, or as much as she could with his weight on her shoulders. “I’m just curious as to what else I don’t know about the mysterious John Sheppard. You don’t talk about yourself, so I figured now’s as good a time as any considering your leg is broken and you need me to survive on this godforsaken planet.”

His smile turned genuine. “I need you to survive? Who was it that saved your ass back there? How many times was it again?”

She rolled her eyes, but refrained from hitting him. “Oh shush. Now spill, mister. Or we’ll be walking all day.”

His smirk returned, “What would you like to know?”

“I don’t know. Just…tell me about her. What’s her name? When did you guys meet? Were you high school sweethearts? Childhood best friends turned lovers? What?”

He let out a soft laugh, “Her name’s Nancy. We met when we were kids, always lived down the street from each other. We didn’t become friends until…I think we were twelve. We started dating right before my mom died. A year later, right before I graduated, she moved away. Her dad got reassigned somewhere and she had to go with. She moved back about a year later and we started dating again, mostly long distance. I’d go see her every change I got. At nineteen, we got married. I moved back home and we got a place together. She was a sweet girl. Two or three years into our marriage, I started getting sent on classified missions. That’s when everything went south. Somewhere in that time frame, she changed.”

“Couldn’t handle being alone most of the time?”

He nodded, “I think so. That, and she accused me of cheating on her.”

She looked up at her friend, a glint in her eye. “What is it with women accusing you of cheating? Just like McKay’s always calling you Kirk. What’s up with that, anyway?”

John shook his head, “It’s Rodney. He thinks I’m just like Captian Kirk when it comes to women.”

“But, you’re not.”

“Thank you! Finally, someone gets it.”

She chuckled and then pointed off into the distance. “There. I think I see a stream or river. Let’s head in that direction.”

They changed directions the slightest bit and started walking, or in Sheppard’s case hopping, towards the river.

“So…enough about me. Let’s talk about you. You don’t talk about yourself that much either.”

She nodded, “Yeah, well, I’m a pretty private person sometimes.”

“I gathered. So am I. You made me spill. Now it’s your turn.”

She stayed silent for a moment before nodding once more, “Okay, what would you like to know?”

“Dirty little secrets are always fun.”

She smiled and shook her head, “I don’t know about those. Um…let’s see. I’m from Texas, born and raised there. You obviously know about my brother. My mom and dad still live there on our ranch. I grew up working on it as well as practically being trained as if I was a soldier. Dad would always put us through these boot camps. It was horrible. At one point, I had wanted to join some branch of the military, but…growing up the way I did kind of…changed that. I also graduated early, same age as you. Got my degrees in astrophysics, physics, and mechanical engineering, same as Rodney. I also got a bachelor’s degree in botany to shut my brother up. Got a degree in medical science to shut my parents up. None of them really understood why I wanted to learn about astrophysics. They all said it was a waste of time and I’d never make any real money from it. Not long after I graduated from college, I got asked to be a part of a big project that ended up being a breakthrough. A few projects later, I was contacted by the SGC. I worked for them for…six months before Alex was brought in for something. Six months after that, we were asked to come here.”

John shook his head, “Am I the only one who didn’t know about the program months before they were asked to join the expedition?”

Nikki glanced up at him, “How long did you know about it?”

“Oh, I’d say…a good ten minutes.”

Nikki stopped in her tracks and looked at him properly. “You only knew about the program for ten minutes before you were asked?”

He shrugged. “Yeah, I flew General O’Neill to the Ancient outpost from McMurdo. I outflew a drone on the way there, so he gave me security clearance. When we got down there, Beckett filled me in on some details, I sat down in the control chair, and…it came to life. He told me I have the gene, ran to get Weir, about…five minutes after that, give or take, Elizabeth asked me.”

“Huh. I bet that was a tough decision. How did you decide what you were going to do?”

John smirked and started them walking again. “Coin flip. Heads I went, tails I stayed home.”

Nikki snorted and shook her head, “Why am I not surprised?”

John smiled, “Anyways, we were talking about you, remember? Any ex-husbands on your list?”

It took her a moment to answer. “No, no ex-husbands. I never got that far. Some very unhappy ex-boyfriends though. They didn’t seem to like their girlfriend being smarter than them. It’s kind of hard to find a guy on my level, or one who isn’t intimidating by it.”

John nodded, “Understandable.”

“Not to mention they probably didn’t like the fact that I could kick their ass.”

John’s smile returned. “Actually, that probably wasn’t the case. A lot of guys like that.”

A laugh erupted from Nikki’s chest. “Are you one of those guys, Colonel?”

His smile turned into a sly smirk as he looked down at her. “I’ll leave that up to your imagination, Doctor.”

She rolled her eyes, but couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped. They arrived at the river a moment later. Nikki helped John sit down against a large boulder not too far from the edge of the river before walking over and filling up both of their canteens. She walked back over to him and sat down next to him, leaning against the boulder. She handed him one of the canteens, which he accepted graciously.

“Thanks.”

She nodded and took a gulp from her own canteen. When she was done and put the cap back on, she looked around their surroundings, taking everything in. She leaned forward around John and spotted something that made her smile. She stood and looked down at him.

“Stay here. I’ll be right back. I’m going to go check that cave out.”

He looked over to where the cave was and nodded. “Side arm. Just in case. Be careful.”

She nodded, pulling out her side arm and walked towards the entrance to the cave cautiously. When she reached the entrance, she stepped inside and waited for her eyes to adjust properly from the drop in light exposure.

It wasn’t a particularly big cave, but it extended back several feet and the entrance was quite small. If she placed some brush in front of it or something similar, she was sure no one would be able to tell this was a cave rather than an awfully large boulder.

Nikki stepped back out from the cave and walked over to Sheppard, slipping her side arm back into its holster. “It’s clear. Big enough for both of us and if I put some brush in front of the entrance, I’m sure it’ll conceal it enough to avoid a second glance.”

He nodded and started to stand with the assistance of the boulder. “Sounds like a plan. I could use a bit of relaxation after almost getting drowned, shot, blown up, falling to our deaths…It’s been a long day.”

Nikki nodded as they got into position for her to help him towards the cave. “I couldn’t agree more.”

**SGA**

Elizabeth Weir stared down into the gate room. She tapped her fingers nervously against the railing she was leaning against as her mind was far beyond the city, traveling with her people towards the planet to save Colonel Sheppard and the scientists who had accompanied him.

It had seemed liked such a simple mission. They had just been sent out to gather readings about a type of radiation they weren’t particularly familiar with and see if they could bring it off course from the planet’s surface.

She definitely hadn’t been expecting this when she’d last seen them that morning before they departed. She was still trying to figure out what to say to the SGC when they dialed in. It was time for the weekly dial-in with Earth. Usually, Colonel Sheppard gave the military’s recounting of events, inventory, the things he was in charge of. With him not present, they would ask about his whereabouts and she had a duty to inform them of the situation. If they found out she had lied when the mission report came in…it wouldn’t go down well with the IOA, she was sure.

Chuck’s voice rang through the control room as the gate started to activate. “Scheduled gate activation!”

She stayed in her position, studying the gate as it locked into place and the horizon whooshed forward before settling into its blue surface.

“Receiving radio communication.”

She nodded, “Patch it through and open a channel.”

“Stargate Command to Atlantis base.”

Elizabeth turned away from the stargate, unable to stare at it any longer. “This is Dr. Weir. Our prepared data burst is ready to be sent when you’re ready to receive.”

“Send it through.”

She nodded at Chuck who typed a few keys and sent their data burst through to the SGC. After a moment, General O’Neill’s voice came over the radio. “The data burst is received, Dr. So, anything exciting happening around the city I should know about?”

Elizabeth hesitated a moment before launching into what was going on. “General, we have a situation. Colonel Sheppard and two scientists left on a mission this morning to study an asteroid giving off a different type of radiation. We received a delayed transmission from them shortly after they arrived saying they were under attack from the planet’s inhabitants. Their jumper went down and crashed into a lake. I’ve sent out jumper two that contains the rest of Sheppard’s team along with Major Lorne’s.”

There was a brief moment of silence before the General’s voice crackled over the radio. “So, you’re saying that the CMO of Atlantis went on a simple science mission for sheer kicks and giggles, ended up being attacked because that’s what Sheppard does best, and there are two teams on their way to his location now.”

“Yes, sir. The flight time is ten hours. I sent jumper two five hours ago, so they’re about halfway there. Also…we believe we know who these people are. We believe they may be from the myth of the Atlans. The information given before Sheppard and his team went down and also the information Dr. McKay was able to find in the database about the planet seems to fit with the myth.”

“The _Atlans_? Now, refresh me if I’m wrong, but weren’t they supposed to be in Southern Brazil?”

“Yes, General, but we also thought this city was on Earth as well. It could very well be the same situation where some of the Greeks heard it from surviving Ancients and misinterpreted it. The facts add up, General.”

There was a sigh heard through the radio. “I’ll take your word for it. I’ll also have Daniel dig up anything he can on the myth on this end, just in case. Keep me posted. O’Neill out.”

The gate disconnected and the control room fell into silence. Elizabeth closed her eyes for a moment before opening them and walking into her office. This was going to be a long night.

**SGA**

Nikki was filling their canteens with more cool water when she heard it. It wasn’t very loud, but she’d been listening intently just in case. She knew John was safe where he was. She’d left him in the cave before covering the entrance so no one would realize that it was a cave.

She reached for the side arm, just in case she would need it, and pulled it out of the holster. She turned around and kept her eyes narrowed for the source of the noise.

Quietly, she walked towards the tree line, not wanting to go back to the cave and give away Sheppard’s hiding spot if there was someone out there watching them. She turned in a slow circle once she was about ten feet into the forest.

Nikki hadn’t even heard them approach until it was too late. A blow landed right between her shoulder blades, pushing her down to the ground. On her way down, she whipped around so that she landed on her backside instead of on her knees, facing away from her opponent.

She raised the side arm only to have it knocked out of her hands by another blow. This time she saw who her opponent was. It was a small group of women who looked like warriors, four of them to be exact.

She stared down the one who seemed to be in charge as she slowly walked closer to where Nikki was still sitting on the ground. Nikki was looking for options. She was going to have to fight these women off on her own. There was no way John could help her this time. It was in that moment when she became thankful for all those boot camps her father had made her endure during her childhood.

When the woman was close enough, Nikki wrapped her heel around the women’s knee, knocking her down to land on her knees. When she was just about to land and before she could get her bearings, Nikki snapped out her arm and connected her palm to the woman’s nose, knocking her head backwards. Nikki’s other fist connected with her stomach, making her bend over back towards Nikki. Nikki slammed her elbow right into the warrior’s temple, sending her crashing to the ground unconscious or dead, Nikki really didn’t care at that point.

She jumped to her feet and got into a defensive stance, eyeing the other warriors as they started to advance on her. One came up on her right which she swung out her arm. She made it seem like she was going for her head, but at the last second, when it was too late to block the redirected strike, she aimed for her ribs. Nikki heard a couple of satisfactory snaps, causing the warrior to lurch forward to pain. As the woman going forward, Nikki flicked her wrist up and slammed it into her nose, sending the woman backwards and landing with a thump.

The one who had been in the center used the distracted of the second warrior to her advantage. She’d been carrying a weapon, a tool that looked a lot similar to club with a huge spike nailed through the end of it. A thought went through Nikki’s mind about why this group wasn’t using the guns they’d saw the first group use. Maybe they came from a different tribe or something? Who knew.

Nikki was able to dodge most of the hit, but the edge of the spike cut a line from just below her left temple and curved down along her jaw and ended right by her chin. She could feel the blood already starting to make its way down her face, but she didn’t have time to think about it. She threw her left arm out over the club that was still raised and brought it in towards her, pinning it to her side, careful not to stab herself with the spike. She wrapped her arm around the club and pulled, bringing the warrior closer where she slammed her heel into the warrior’s stomach as hard as she could at the same time she let go of the club. The warrior flew backwards several feet and landed with a thud, but she didn’t stay down long.

While she was down, the fourth warrior stepped in, having had enough of watching her comrades get the beatings of their lives. Nikki decided to throw the first punch, but it was blocked. As were her second, third, and fourth strikes.  This warrior was blocking her hits left and right. The woman twisted Nikki’s arm out of the way and threw a punch Nikki wasn’t able to block. It landed on her left cheek, but when her fist hit Nikki’s face, it slipped on the blood coating that side of her face and slammed into her nose, sending her staggering a couple of steps.

Nikki regained her balance and whipped around take up a defensive stance against the warrior. The woman was smiling victoriously, as if she had already taken Nikki down. The sight just spurred her on and made her fight harder.

The warrior took a step closer to her as her friend was picking herself up off the ground. Nikki kicked her leg out and wrapped it around the warrior’s legs, knocking her to the ground. As she was falling, Nikki lunged forward and slammed her fist straight into her nose, pushing her down faster and making her hit the ground that much harder. The warrior’s head came down on a rock. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head and closed. _Three down, one more to go._

Nikki looked at the last of the warriors as she glanced down at the woman she’d just dropped.

“You’ve got two options here. You can either turn around and high tail it out of here or you can end up on the ground, dead, like your comrades. Your choice.”

The warrior’s eyes narrowed and she let out warrior’s battle cry as she rushed towards Nikki. Nikki had been expecting it, knowing she wouldn’t just turn around and head for home after watching her friends go down. Nikki made a snap decision as she side stepped the warrior who had taken a run for her, causing the warrior to almost slam into a tree in surprise. Taking the time for her advantage, she dove for the abandoned club, picked it up, and spun around to face her only opponent.

“Okay. Fighting to the death. Looks like you picked the option that ends with you lying in a pool of your own blood. I hope it was worth it.”

The warrior hissed at her and then lunged, not seeming to care that she was wielding a club that had a rather sharp spike on the end of it. When the warrior was in range, Nikki swung the club, but she deflected it and knocked it out of Nikki’s hands. _Okay, tougher than they look._

The warrior knocked Nikki backwards, making her land in the dirt with her straddling her waist. The warrior threw punch after punch, Nikki only being able to deflect half of them before she was able to shift her weight and roll them sideways. Nikki rolled them until she was on top, straddling the warrior where she unleashed several punches of her own. She used one arm to hold down one of the warrior’s arms, not letting her use it to block her strikes and allowing more strikes to go through. Nikki didn’t stop until the warrior finally went limp beneath her. Slowly, she stood and looked around her. Two of the women were still alive.

She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, not liking what she was about to do, but she couldn’t leave any of them alive with their hiding spot to close and with John having a broken leg. She searched around until she found her side arm and then sent a bullet into both warrior’s skulls, ensuring a quick death.

Nikki slid the side arm into its holster, picked up the club, and returned to the cave. She left the entrance open just enough to let some light in. When she stepped through the entrance, John’s head snapped up. “What the hell happened?! I heard gun shots and…you’re bleeding. Come here, sit.”

She did as she was told, too tired from the fight since the adrenaline rush was starting to wear off, and all but collapsed onto the ground beside him.

He looked up into her eyes, worried. “What happened?”

“I heard a noise, so I went to go check it out. I didn’t want to return to the cave in case someone was watching me. Turns out, someone was watching me. Four warriors came out of nowhere. I fought them off. They’re all dead.”

John nodded, knowing it was the right call to kill them. They couldn’t have their position compromised. He pulled out a handkerchief from his tact vest and scooted closer. He pulled one of the canteens out of her pockets and poured a little bit onto the material. He started to clean away the blood so that he could bandage up what he needed to.

“So you fought off four of them? Were they all women again?”

“Yeah. I used two of the bullets to make sure they were dead. They were unconscious, but…I didn’t want to take any chances.”

John nodded, “It was the right call, Nikki. A tough one, but the right one. We’re fighting for our survival. And when that happens…you have to do what you have to do. We can keep it out of the report that you used the bullets like that. Don’t worry about anything.”

She nodded, not sure what to really say. She let him take care of her wounds, liking being taken care for once. Since she was the one with a medical degree, she was usually taking care of everyone else.

“You know…this is kind of nice. Alien planet where we’re running for our lives, broken legs, and blood aside. Don’t take this the wrong way, but…I’m glad it was you I got stuck on this planet with. If it had been anyone else, I probably would have shot them by now.”

John chuckled as he continued to clean her wounds. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Nikki smiled, “As you should. If it had been Kavanaugh, I would have left him back at the base of that cliff. Or shot him myself, saved these people the trouble.”

John chuckled again, his smile widening. “I wouldn’t blame you one bit there. There have been several times where I’ve wanted to shoot that man. McKay’s wanted to shoot him, Elizabeth wanted to shoot him a couple of times. Ronon almost beat him up one time when we thought he was a traitor.”

“What happened?”

“He fainted.”

Nikki’s jaw dropped. “You’re kidding me. He actually fainted?”

John smiled, “Yeah. Took one look at Ronon approaching him and went down like a rock. Ever since then, he avoids Ronon at all costs.”

Nikki giggled, “Yeah, I would too. Though, I know that underneath all the burly intimidation, Ronon’s really a big sweetheart.”

John stopped cleaning the cut on her face and looked her in the eye. “Please don’t tell me you have a crush on the big guy.”

She rolled her eyes, “No, I do not have a crush on Ronon, thank you very much. I have my sights already set on someone, for your information.”

John hesitate before he started to clean her cut again. He nodded absently, trying to play it off. “Let me guess…one of the strapping young marines?”

She rolled her eyes again, “No. And even if you did guess right somehow, which I don’t think you would…I’m not ready for anyone to know.”

His eyes met her again questioningly. “Not even him?”

She shook her head slightly. “Not even him. I’m just not…” She looked down at her hands, thinking about what to say, but before she could continue, he started talking.

“Hey, don’t worry about it. I understand the whole, ‘not ready for a relationship thing’. Trust me. I thought I was ready for one and look where it got me.”

She looked back up at him, her eyes curious. “Was she the first since Nancy?”

He looked back at the cut, inspecting it thoroughly. “Yeah. Well, the first that could have been serious. The first I had actually started to care about before everything went south. I don’t know. It’s difficult to maintain a relationship when you’re basically everyone’s boss.”

“You’re not everyone’s boss though. Only the military. Surely there’s a scientist who isn’t a whack job who could make you happy.”

He nodded, “Yeah, there is.”

It’d slipped out before he could stop it and a small blush rose to his cheeks before he could stop that either. Her smile a fraction at seeing him blush, but a part of her didn’t like it.

“Who is she?”

He stopped cleaning the cut, having already cleaned it as good as it was going to get. “I guess I’m not ready for anyone to know either. Though Ronon’s thrown a few glances my way about it, so I’m sure he already knows. How he seems to know everything like that is beyond me. I don’t think I’ll ever understand it.”

Nikki chuckled, “Yeah, friends are funny that way.”

John took her hands in his and started bandaging up the cuts on her knuckles when he was done with the long cut on her face. He wrapped some gauze around her knuckles, that’s as far as their medical equipment went.

“You’re all patched up. Anything else hurt? Any other injuries I should know about?”

Nikki shook her head slowly. “No.”

He nodded and was about to turn away from her when he saw the sadness in her eyes. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her into his chest. She laid her head down just under his chin and rested her hand on his chest.

“What’s wrong?”

It took a moment for her to answer. “I don’t want to sound like a little kid when I say this, but…I really want to go home.”

He nodded, “I’m sure when we get back to the city Elizabeth will grant you a couple of weeks to go back to Earth given our situation.”

She shook her head. “Earth’s not home, John.”

He rested his head on top of hers and tightened his hold on her. “We’ll get home, Nikki. I promise you that. We only two more hours until they should be getting here and then Rodney will have programmed a life signs detector to pick up our subcutaneous locator beacons. We’ll be home in no time.”

She nodded, snuggling deeper onto his chest. “And then what?”

“And then we start a new chapter in our lives where we make the most of everything.”

She nodded again, “I like that, but does that mean I’ll have to suck it up and tell him I like him?”

He nodded, “Yeah.”

“Okay, but on one condition.”

“What’s that, Nikki?”

“You have to tell her you like her too.”

“Deal.”

**SGA**

Evan set the jumper down in the only open clearing miles from where the HUD was saying their people were. He looked over at McKay who was configuring the life signs detectors to pick up on their subcutaneous locator beacons. “Any idea who those two are? If the Colonel is one of them?”

McKay looked up from the detector and pointed to one of them. “That one right there is Dr. Teagan. And that one is Sheppard. I’m not picking up Dr. Barden’s anywhere which means…which means he didn’t survive. It’s only the two of them that we’re looking for.”

Lorne nodded. He wasn’t very happy that he wasn’t able to bring back all three of them, but he would settle for just the two.

They were all geared up and ready to go as Lorne started to lower the hatch. Ronon was braced against the wall, his gun aimed out of the hatch in case there was anyone unwanted nearby. They unloaded the jumper and Lorne hit the remote to seal the hatch and then cloak it. “Okay, I want my team to stay here and guard the area. Make sure no one finds that jumper. That’s our only way home. Ronon, Teyla, McKay and I will go after the Colonel and Dr. Teagan. We’ll keep in radio contact just to be on the safe side. If you don’t hear from us in half an hour, get in the jumper and track us down.”

Sergeant Wheeler nodded, “Yes, sir.”

Lorne nodded, “Alright, let’s go get them back.”

They started walking through the forest, each one keeping their eyes and ears open for any signs of the Atlans. Every one of them minus Rodney, that is. McKay had his eyes practically glued to the life signs detector, making sure they were going in the right direction at all times.

“Alright, we need to head in that direction. It looks like they’re holding steady, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to track them down.”

Ronon nodded, looking around the forest. “It’s quiet.”

Teyla nodded, “I agree. Too quiet. There are no animals.”

Lorne looked back at her briefly before looking back out at the forest. “Maybe that’s a result of the radiation from the asteroid? Would it have any effects on the planet?”

McKay looked up from the life signs detector. “That’s a very real possibility. The asteroid was quite close when we approached it. We have never seen that kind of radiation so there’s no way to be sure if it’s capable of reaching the planet’s surface and inflicting that kind of harm on the environment. It very well could be why these people are so pissed off too.”

Teyla glanced over at him briefly. “I imagine they are upset because their ancestors were experimented on and then left to die on an abandoned planet with no stargate.”

Rodney grimaced, “True, but also if the radiation is causing the wildlife to virtually become extinct…that could cause all sorts of problems for their food source. Surely, they can’t just eat plants all the time. There has to be some kind of meat in there somewhere and with the wildlife gone…there is no meat.”

Ronon grunted, “Nice observation.”

“Hey! I’d like to see you do the science stuff for a change.”

Ronon looked over at him with an eyebrow raised. He stared at McKay until he started to fidget and looked away from the tall, towering man loaded down with weapons and dreadlocks.

“How much farther are they?”

McKay looked down at the sensor and calculated the route quickly in his head. “About another ten minute walk or so.”

Ronon nodded, “Then let’s keep moving.”

They continued on in silence for a while, Rodney mumbling to himself, something to do with Radek screwing with an experiment.

Ten minutes later, they reached a river. Teyla looked around and spotted what looked like a cave with no entrance. It was big enough, but there was no entrance from where she was standing. “Rodney, are you sure they are nearby? I do not see where they could be.”

Rodney nodded, “Yes! It says so right here! They’re about thirty feet in…that direction.” He pointed directly at the structure Teyla had thought was a cave.

She nodded and approached slowly. “Are there any other life signs around?”

He shook his head, “No. It’s only us and them.”

Before she could approach any further, the brush that was sitting in front of the larger structure moved. She raised her weapon, just in case the detector hadn’t been able to pick up on enemy life signs.

It moved out of the way and Nikki stepped through. Her body visibly relaxed when she saw them and her face lit up. “Boy am I glad to see you guys.”

Teyla lowered her weapon and stepped up next to Nikki, examining her injuries. “How did this happen?”

Nikki shook her head, “It doesn’t matter. I hope the jumper is nearby?”

Teyla nodded, but before she could ask why, Nikki continued. “Good. John’s leg is broken. We’ve been hiding in here for a few hours, hoping to stay away from the groups of warriors.”

Ronon stepped closer. “Groups of warriors?”

She nodded, “Yeah, they’re all women. So far we’ve only encountered two groups. A group of five and a group of four. The first group had guns, but the second only had primitive weapons. Don’t worry, they’re all dead.”

She stepped inside the cave and was followed by Teyla and Lorne. McKay and Ronon stayed outside since the cave wasn’t very big.

John looked up as Teyla and Evan walked in. “Well! Good to know the cavalry wasn’t attacked on their way here. And…now we can finally get off this godforsaken planet and go home.”

Nikki nodded as she helped John stand up and wrapped an arm around his waist. “I couldn’t agree more.”

They exited the cave and John looked over at Ronon and McKay. “Hey guys, nice of you to make it.”

McKay snorted. “Oh yes, how nice of us to endure a ten hour jumper ride in which we weren’t even sure if you were alive or not. How exciting for us.”

John grimaced, “Well, don’t explode with excitement to see me alive and…somewhat well. It’s okay, I understand.”

Nikki rolled her eyes. “Can we please skip the friendly banter and get the hell out of here? My shower is calling my name along with a hot meal.”

John shook his head, “More like the infirmary is calling your name. Beckett will most likely keep you overnight just because it’s Beckett.”

She grunter her response which earned a smirk from Ronon. They began their walk back in silence before Teyla looked at the Colonel.

“So, Colonel, what happened after you sent the transmission?”

John grimaced just thinking about it. “Well, I was able to steer the jumper towards a lake before we lost controls altogether. We also lost inertial dampeners so when we hit, we hit hard. The land knocked all of us out and we didn’t regain consciousness until…a couple of hundred feet down or so, I’d say. It wasn’t too deep, but deep enough. Barden had hit his head a couple of times, once on the landing, and again when I opened the hatch door so we could make it to the surface. He…didn’t make it.”

John looked down at Nikki for a moment before continuing. “We swam to shore and took a break for a few minutes, regaining our strength before the first group we encountered spotted us. They chased us through the forest for…I don’t know how long. We ended up coming to the top of a cliff and were stuck. They tracked us down and had guns on his. When none of them were looking, I pulled out a grenade, pulled the pin, and let it fly. Before it landed, I threw us out of the way, but the blast sent us over the edge of the cliff. We landed and were both knocked unconscious. That’s how I broke my leg. I think we were out for about half an hour or so. Nikki reset my leg and we went in search of water. We found the river and then Nikki found that cave.”

Nikki nodded, “Nice spot to put a cave. It was the perfect hiding spot.”

“That it was. And then a little while later, Nikki went out for more water where she found another group watching her. She kicked some major ass, got some cuts and scrapes, but lived to tell the tale. Even got us a weapon if we needed it. Then it gets kind of boring from there.”

Rodney snorted. “What? Did you sit around the campfire telling ghost stories and singing Kumbaya?”

John rolled his eyes, “No, Rodney, we were not. We couldn’t make a campfire without disclosing our position, for one. For two, who the hell sings Kumbaya anymore?”

“Girl scouts.”

John nodded, “Well, there you go. We’re not girl scouts so there’s your answer.”

They continued walking and Teyla filled them in on the back story of the Atlans. It was quite a long story and Teyla finished it right as they entered the clearing.

“Huh. So that’s why they shot us out of the sky.”

Teyla nodded, “It was appear so.”

They approached the jumper as it uncloaked and the hatch lowered. Lorne and his team walked in first, taking up the front of the jumper. The rest of them climbed on and Nikki helped John sit down in the back of the jumper. John rested his head against the wall of the jumper and sighed. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this relieved to sit in the back of a jumper.”

Nikki chuckled and nodded, “I hear ya.”

Lorne raised the hatch and brought them up off the ground. He them away from the planet and towards home. Lorne opened communications and radioed back to Atlantis.

“Atlantis this is jumper two, please respond.”

Weir’s voice came over the radio and John smiled. “This is Atlantis base. Please tell me you have some good news.”

John gestured for Nikki to help him up and she helped him get into the cockpit so he could respond. Lorne saw him approaching and let him do the talking.

“I’d say it’s some pretty good news. It could be better, but it could also be worse.”

There was a moment of silence before Elizabeth’s voice sounded over the radio. You could hear the relief in her voice. “It’s good to hear your voice, John. Did the scientists survive as well?”

John paused, but only for a brief second. “Dr. Teagan and I were able to make it through. I’ll give you a full report when we get back.”

“That sounds like a plan. I’d also like to inform you all that-.”

Lorne’s voice cut off Dr. Weir’s. “A ship just dropped out of hyperspace. It’s the Daedalus, sir.”

“You were saying, Elizabeth?”

“I was saying that I arranged for the Daedalus to meet you on your way back. That was the quickest they could get to you.”

John nodded, “Well, thanks for the arrangement. That means we can get home sooner. We’ll see you soon. Jumper two out.”

John looked down at Lorne. “Open communications with the Daedalus.”

Lorne nodded and signaled when they were open. “Daedalus, this is Colonel John Sheppard. Nice of you to join us.”

Colonel Caldwell’s voice echoed through the jumper. “Would have been here sooner, but we had some problems of our own. Good to hear you survived, Sheppard.”

John smirked, “Yeah, I thought so too. So, what do you say we come aboard and get the hell out of this part of space?”

“I think it sounds like an excellent plan. Hangar bay doors are open. Come on in.”

“Will do, sir. Jumper two out.”

John looked down at Lorne. “Get us onto that ship so we can get the hell out of here.”

Lorne smiled, “I would love to, sir.”

John smiled and turned back towards the rear compartment, Nikki in tow. “I so cannot wait to get back to the infirmary.”

As they sat down, he paused, “And I never thought I would ever say that.”

Nikki chuckled, “And I never thought I’d hear you say it either.”

They boarded the Daedalus and got Sheppard insisted he could wait to go to the infirmary until after the reached Atlantis. They stayed aboard the jumper since it would only be about fifteen minutes or so and then they would be home.

John looked around the compartment at his friends. “Thanks for coming for us.”

Teyla smiled at him and nodded, “You would have done the same for us, Colonel.”

He nodded, “Yeah, I would have.”


	5. Slow Dancing in a Burning Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John gets a letter from Earth with no return address on it. After he storms away, Nikki reads it and goes after him. What will happen...?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay...so...I did something different with this chapter that I've never seen done in this fandom. The lyrics and everything are Slow Dancing in a Burning Room by John Mayer. I used the Michael Henry and Justin Robinett version because it's on piano and I love that version. I hope I didn't butcher anything...and I hope you enjoy it! Like I said, I've never seen this done in this fandom, so I hope it was a good change of pace!!

**Chapter 5**

Chuck walked into the mess hall and his eyes roamed over the many heads surrounding the tables. It was lunchtime, so the room was packed with people.

He was only looking for one in particular though. His eyes roamed further down and finally spotted him. He smiled to himself at his success as he moved towards the man sitting at a table with his friends. They were laughing about something unknown to anyone else.

He approached the table from behind the man and stepped up next to him.

“Sir, the Daedalus has arrived with mail. You received a letter. I thought you’d want it right away.”

Lt. Colonel John Sheppard looked up at him and tilted his head to the side in confusion as he set up straighter. He reached out and took the envelope he’d been carrying.

“Thanks, Chuck.”

Chuck nodded, backing away from the table. The entire control room had been buzzing as soon as the letter had been pulled from the pile. The Colonel never received any mail and it didn’t have a return address. The gossip mills were rolling on this piece of meat.

**SGA**

John looked down at the envelope in his hands. It didn’t have a return address on it, which was strange to say the least. Not to mention the fact that he never got mail, ever.

He could feel everyone’s eyes on him as he slipped open the envelope cautiously, as if it would bite him. He wasn’t sure if he really wanted to read whatever was inside.

He momentarily glanced around the table at his team and Nikki who were watching him, as curious as he was.

He pulled a piece of paper from the envelope and unfolded it, dread settling in the pit of his stomach. He recognized the handwriting immediately and was tempted to tuck it back where it came from and pitch in the trash on his way out.

_Dear John,_

_Wow, I never thought I’d ever talk to you again. I know you must be surprised to be hearing from me. I don’t even really know why I’m writing to you. I guess I’m just not sure what to do anymore. Grant…Grant and I are getting a divorce. I just can’t seem to make a marriage work. He said it was because I never fully got over you. Seeing you at Patrick’s wake made me think of the old times. When we were still in love. I miss it, John. I miss you coming home to me. I miss you more than I did when you’d had to go on your missions and leave me behind. I never thought that was possible, but it is. John, I miss us. I don’t know if you’ve found someone who can make you happy, probably not. You’re never going to change. That’s why you need to come home now, John. You need to grow up and stop playing games. We both know we belong together. It’s for the best. Come home, John. I’ll see you soon, honey._

_Love Always,_

_Nancy_

His eyes narrowed at the piece if paper in his hands. How dare she. How dare she write to him after all this time and demand they get back together. She had no right!

He crumpled the paper into a ball, threw it to the side, and stood up. He didn’t know where he was going, but he needed to get away. He was about to explode, he could feel it.

He needed to get away.

**SGA**

Nikki watched John’s body tense the more he read. She could practically feel the anger rolling off of him. She wanted to say something, but what could you say?

Suddenly, he crumpled the letter, threw it aside, and walked away. His fists were tightened at his side and he left the mess hall in a hurry to get nowhere.

She looked down at her feet, where the letter lay in a ball. Did she dare?

Nikki picked it up and slowly unwrinkled it. She saw the curves of a woman’s handwriting and instantly wondered if it was from his ex-wife. She remembered John telling her about his first marriage and how badly it had ended.

Her eyes flew across the page as she quickly read line after line. Definitely from his ex-wife. She looked up where he’d gone and hesitated. “John…”

Should she go after him? Would he want company or would he prefer to be alone? He was pretty upset when he had stormed out of there.

_Oh, what the hell. If he needs someone to talk to, I’ll be there for him._

She jumped up from the table, ignoring the team’s questions of what was going on, and ran through the mess hall.

Once out in the hallway, she wondered where he would go.

She checked his quarters, no luck there. He liked going to the East pier, but again empty. She checked every balcony she remembered he liked to go to, but kept coming up empty.

_Maybe he went for a jumper ride. Or to one of the recreational rooms?_

She decided to check the rec rooms first, just in case.

She was almost there when the sound of a piano started to echo through the empty halls. No one was in this part of the city at the moment. They were all either on duty, off-world, or in the mess hall having lunch.

Nikki picked up her pace, jogging down the hallways towards the rec room that had the piano in it. When she finally reached it, she stopped, not sure if it was John she was hearing playing or someone else. If it was someone else, she really didn’t want to disturb their alone time.

That’s when a voice flowed through the air towards her, making her head lift and her feet carry her closer. She stopped just inside the door and poked her head around to see who was playing.

John was sitting on the bench, his fingers sliding easily over the keys and his voice filling the room. She had no idea he could play, let alone sing. His voice rooted her to the spot. The words started to filter into her brain and that’s when she understood why he had taken off.

 _It's not a silly little moment,_  
It's not the storm before the calm.  
This is the deep and dying breath of  
This love that we've been working on.

He was alone out here. Sure, he had his friends, his teammates, and everyone under his command surrounding him, but he was alone. That letter had driven home that fact. She had told him he’d never change. He’d never get someone to make him happy, other than her, but the fact was she didn’t make him happy. She made him miserable.

 _Can't seem to hold you like I want to_  
So I can feel you in my arms.  
Nobody's gonna come and save you,  
We pulled too many false alarms.

Their marriage had been rocky from the start and had only gotten worse. Every time they had tried to fix it, things came crashing down that much harder, faster. They’d said they were going to call it quits several times before it had been made official. Each time, they had poured out more of their heart and soul to attempt to recover even the smallest bit of their love, but in the end it had failed.

 _We're going down,_  
And you can see it too.  
We're going down,  
And you know that we're doomed.  
My dear,  
We're slow dancing in a burning room.

He had known that it was futile. Their marriage would never work with him being gone so much and never being able to tell her where he had been or what he had been doing. There were too many secrets for their marriage to succeed. Too many unknowns for anything to work properly. There was no trust.

 _I was the one you always dreamed of,_  
You were the one I tried to draw.  
How dare you say it's nothing to me?  
Baby, you're the only light I ever saw.

She had always dreamed of having a husband. A loyal man who served his country and did his time. She had always wanted a husband who was willing to lay down his life for those in need. He had loved her, but it hadn’t been enough. Every time he walked out the door, called away on another mission, his heart stayed behind. It broke his heart to see her so miserable because of him and knowing that he couldn’t make her happy. He’d wanted a family, a real family, like the one he had before his mom had died. He had seen the opportunity to have a family with her.

 _I'll make the most of all the sadness,_  
You'll be a bitch because you can.  
You try to hit me just to hurt me  
So you leave me feeling dirty  
Because you can't understand.

He had tried to pour his heart into his work, find happiness there, make something out of a failure. She had yelled at him, blamed him for everything. When he left for the last mission, she had told him never to come back if he walked out the door. He walked out the door, but he had still returned. He had returned to an empty house and her wedding ring lying on the table. He couldn’t tell her about his missions. They were special ops, top secret and confidential. If he told her the things he had to do, she could be killed or imprisoned from just knowing. She didn’t understand why he had to keep the secrets he had to keep. That had driven a wedge between them, a wedge that turned permanent.

 _We're going down,_  
And you can see it too.  
We're going down,  
And you know that we're doomed.  
My dear,  
We're slow dancing in a burning room.  
  
Go cry about it - why don't you?  
Go cry about it - why don't you?  
Go cry about it - why don't you?

He had told Nikki everything about his past. She had asked him to and he had. He’d told her his deepest, darkest secrets and she had listened to every word. She knew he was a silent man who kept his feelings to himself, so she had clung to every word that poured from his lips.

 _My dear, we're slow dancing in a burning room,_  
Burning room,  
Burning room,  
Burning room,  
Burning room.

He’d always blamed himself for their marriage falling apart. He’d blamed himself for not being able to be there for her like a husband should. He blamed himself for making her worry about him, not being able to tell her if he was even alive. He blamed himself for everything that had happened between them whether it his fault or not.

 _Don't you think we oughta know by now?_  
Don't you think we shoulda learned somehow?  
Don't you think we oughta know by now?  
Don't you think we shoulda learned somehow?  
Don't you think we oughta know by now?  
Don't you think we shoulda learned somehow? 

The last keys were struck and the room soon fell silent. His fingers rested on the keys for a moment longer before he let them slip into his lap. His head bowed down, his eyes squeezed shut. This was his moment of solitary. He was alone and he could let his walls crumble for a moment. He could let himself be open with himself, acknowledge the pain he was feeling instead of shoving it down under a lid and making an empty promise to deal with it later.

He had failed. He had failed at everything in that marriage. It was his fault they hadn’t lasted very long, they both knew it. And here she was, telling him to come home. She was telling him that they belonged together. She had told him to grow up and to stop playing games.

_If only she knew…_

If only she knew what he had to do every day.

If only she knew the kinds of sacrifices he’d had to make over the years.

If only she knew what kind of man he really was, she wouldn’t want him back.

His mind swirled around these thoughts relentlessly. If only…If only he could tell her, if only he could find someone who could put up with him, if only he could open up to someone, if only…if only he could find that happiness he’d been searching for since the day his mom died.

“That was beautiful. Did you write it yourself?”

His head snapped up in the direction of the door where the voice had come from.

Nikki.

Nikki was standing in the doorway with a knowing expression in her eyes. He instantly knew that she’d read the letter and had come to make sure he was okay.

He slammed the walls up around him as fast as he could, but it wasn’t fast enough. She’d seen the sadness in his eyes, the heartache, the guilt. A single tear rolled down his cheek before he could stop it. He quickly turned and wiped it away, praying she hadn’t seen it.

“Yeah. I wrote it years ago during my divorce.”

The room was silent for a long moment until he felt her sit down beside him on the bench. “I didn’t know you could play. Could you show me something? I’ve always wanted to learn.”

He knew she was stalling for his benefit, to help him regain some of his composure before she asked the difficult questions, but he played along.

“Sure.” He rested his hands on the keys gently and played through a short song he had learned years ago. It was easy to pick up, a catchy tune he knew would be stuck in his head for days. She nodded her head to the beat, carefully watching his fingers.

When he was done, he rested his hands back on his lap and stared at the piano, not sure what to say.

“Have you ever told anyone?”

He glances at her sideways, but doesn’t move his head. “Told anyone what?”

She ran a finger lightly over a few of the keys, light enough not to make a sound. “About how alone you feel.”

Her answer shocked him to his core. How had she known he’d felt alone? He was surrounded by people, by his friends and teammates, he was sitting by her at that moment. How could she have known that none of it really mattered? That there was still that emptiness inside of him he’d been craving to fill.

“How…”

“I dated this guy for six years. We were engaged, but…it didn’t work out. Some things happened and we broke up. After that, it didn’t matter where I was or who I was with, it wasn’t enough. I was never fully satisfied. There were times when I felt like I was happy. I was smiling, laughing, having a good time, but it wasn’t enough. There was still this hole inside of me, threatening to tear me apart if I didn’t fill it. I started searching for a way to fill it, anything. I tried alcohol for a while, but that didn’t do anything. Drugs didn’t even make a dent in it. I tried having casual one-night stands, some meaningless pleasure, but that got boring fast. I started to pour myself into my work, into my research. That’s how I got assigned here. Over half a decade later, I was still trying to fill that hole, so I had poured myself into science. It worked enough and I made enough progress to be contacted by the SGC. I came here and everything was new and exciting, different. New people, new discoveries, new planet, new _galaxy_. There was enough to sustain me for a while, distract me from that hole, but, like always, it came back.”

He’d been listening intently to her, a part of him needing to know how she’d dealt with it. “What’d you do?”

“I poured even more of myself into my work. I refused to let myself up for air for days at a time. I refused to let myself even think about it. And then I went on a mission with this guy. You know, shit happened like it does around here and we were stuck.”

A small smile appeared on his lips as he caught on to where she was heading with this.

“I got to talking with him, really talking. Just…not caring what was said. About anything and everything. I opened myself up to him and…that hole got smaller. All those years I’d been burying it, trying to repress it, shove it behind a wall so far it would never see the light of day ever again, but when I opened up and put myself out there…I could feel it starting to shrink. I had allowed myself to actually be happy, _truly_ happy for the first time in years and…it helped. Do you know what I’m trying to say here?”

He turned his head towards her, but didn’t say anything. His eyes were searching hers for any signs of deceit and found none.

“I’m trying to say that you can’t close yourself off from the world. If you do, you’ll never be truly happy. You’ll always feel alone even when you’re really not. You may feel like you don’t have anyone to talk to, vent to, but that’s not true. Teyla is always willing to listen, Ronon…he may be silent, but that makes him a good listener. McKay…he’s obnoxious, but he cares. He cares enough to want to help when he can. And then you have me. I know you haven’t known me as long as your team, but I feel like we’ve connected over the past month or two. And I’m here for you. I won’t judge, scouts honor.”

She held up her hand in a mock salute, trying to pry a smile out of him and succeeded.

“Thanks. You know…I’m not good with…”

“Words?”

His smile grew the slightest bit, “Yeah. Or people. Or…”

“Feelings?”

He chuckled, “That too.”

He looked down at the piano, his mind picking up speed, wondering what to say, what to do.

“You know…I told her I’d quit the Air Force.”

She looked over at him curiously, but let him continue.

“I told her I wanted a family, that if she got pregnant, I’d resign. Sometimes I thank…whomever’s out there…for not letting her get pregnant. Who knows where I’d be if that had happened. I wouldn’t be here, that’s for sure. Some days I wish she had gotten pregnant. Maybe I’d…be happy then.”

She slid her hand over his and squeezed reassuringly. “John, you deserve better than that. You deserve better than a what if situation. A real family, one that loves you and supports you no matter what, one that doesn’t nag, argue, and make you feel guilty about everything. You have that here. You have a family here. It might not be a traditional one, but…who knows. Maybe one day you’ll get that.”

“It’s not easy…maintaining a relationship on top of this job. This job takes a lot. I give a lot of myself to this city, to this job. At the end of the day…I don’t know if it’s enough. I don’t know if I have enough to give to someone…I feel…incomplete, but at the same time…it’s like I’m overwhelmed with everything.”

Nikki nodded. “You’re overwhelmed because you don’t have anyone you feel you can share the burden with. You don’t have that kind of partner where you can just unload everything and not have to worry about them taking it too far and just calling it quits. You’re a good man, John. Any woman would be lucky to be able to call you their man, to be able to go home to you every night. I know it’s not easy, but…it’ll get better. You just have to open yourself up to someone, let yourself be truly happy.”

He smiled at her, a genuine smile. “I have been opening myself up to someone.”

When he saw her face fall the slightest bit when she didn’t understand what he meant, he kept going, not realizing that they had an audience as Teyla and Ronon had appeared in the doorway behind them. “One day I met this scientist who turned my world around. I knew she was going to be trouble since day one. And she was, still is, in fact. We fought some battles together, fought for our lives together.           She asked me to open up to her and I did. I let her in when I haven’t let anyone in that far in years. I haven’t even let my team in that far. I trust them with my life, but…never saw an opportunity or way to open up to them. But this scientist…she’s beautiful. She makes me happier than I’ve been in a very long time. She’s seen me at my lowest, which no one has since my mom died. I’ve shut everyone else out since the day I was told my mom had passed away. For me to be able to open up after so long…”

He looked away from Nikki, down at their hands where she was still holding his firmly, reassuringly. “It’s hard, but it’s worth it. Sometimes…sometimes I feel like I’m not enough. That I don’t deserve such a big responsibility. I feel like throwing in my hat, going back to Earth, and see what I can do about getting my brother back since he’s the only blood I have left. And then there are days where I know that what I do matters and I wouldn’t trade those days for anything. I wouldn’t trade being here for anything. My team…for the longest time they were all I had. Them, Elizabeth, and Carson were the only people I had. Then, for a while I thought I had gotten my brother back, but…that didn’t go anywhere. Then I met Lorne. And then…I met this scientist. And she became one of the best friends I could ever hope for.”

He looked back up at her and smiled. “You know, I think that hole is starting to shrink.”

She smiled back at him before resting her head on his shoulder. “Good. It’s about time it did. I’ll be sure to thank this scientist for helping you so much. She must be pretty badass to get through to you.”

He chuckled, “Yeah, and you know what they say about women who are badass.”

She glanced up at him, but didn’t move her head. “What’s that?”

“They make a mean sandwich.”

Nikki snorted, shaking her head, but letting the comment drop. She was content with just sitting there the way they were and letting the city go on around them without them for a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think about John singing? I've always thought he'd have a nice voice since it's deep and all. Given, he does have a certain...uniqueness to his voice where he likes to go a little higher when he talks and all, but...You'd be surprised at how many people who's voices are a little different like that or they talk differently and they end up having such a beautiful singing voice. Who knows! But...I hope you liked it! Next chapter is ready to be posted! So, I'll get that up either later today or tomorrow.


	6. Flirting, Laughing, and Plotting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sheppard gets a promotion. While him and his team are on Earth, they get to talking. When they return, John has a new perspective on something. Will he do something about it?

** Chapter 3 **

One week ago today, John Sheppard was promoted from Lt. Colonel to full Colonel. He was promoted based on his exemplary work with the Replicators and the Wraith. He was gone from Pegasus for almost 3 weeks because of the promotion. They had a dinner and ceremony in his name. And John hated just about every minute of both since everyone’s attention was on him for most of the night.

He had taken a week off to spend with his brother while he was back on Earth. Ever since what happened with the Atlans and his conversations with Nikki afterwards, he had decided he wanted to try harder with his brother.

And now he was finally back home on Atlantis. All senior staff had accompanied him to Earth and they were all happy to be home finally. Since they had found an extra ZPM, they didn’t have to take the Daedalus and be gone for even longer.

While they were gone, Major Evan Lorne had been in charge. He had stayed behind since Dr. Weir and Teyla were accompanying Sheppard.

John walked into the control room and eyed Lorne standing by one of the control panels. “Lorne! Anything happen while we were away?”

Evan looked up at his commanding officer. “Well, we’ve had a couple of bumps but nothing too bad. Stackhouse’s team was kept captive for a few hours, but we managed to rescue them before any of them were seriously injured. There was a slight problem with one of the jumpers and it caused an away team to almost fly into a sun. But that’s about it.”

John smirked, “Oh. So the usual then.” Evan chuckled and nodded. “Yeah, same ole same ole here in the Pegasus Galaxy. Oh, I heard about the promotion. Congratulations, sir!”

Sheppard looked away and blushed slightly. “Thanks, Lorne. Was Zalenka able to fix the problem on that jumper?”

Lorne grabbed the data pad that was sitting on the control panel he was standing by. He typed a few things and looked up at the Colonel. “Yes, sir. It looks like he got everything back to working order about an hour ago. He must still be up there running tests just to make sure.”

John nodded and made his way to the jumper bay. “Keep me posted.”

“Will do, sir.”

Sheppard walked into the jumper bay and found Radek and Nikki running a few tests on jumper one. He walked up the ramp and they turned their attention on him. “Colonel Sheppard! You’re early. I thought you wouldn’t be getting back until next week.”

John looked at Nikki sitting in the cockpit. “Yeah, we were supposed to, but we got a little restless.” Radek looked back down at his laptop. “You mean _you_ got a little restless.”

John smiled and put his hands on his hips. “Yeah, well, what can I say? Being away from this place for too long makes me restless. I wanted to get back home.”

Nikki set down her laptop and walked to the rear compartment where Zalenka and Sheppard were. “So. What’s it feel like to be a full bird?”

Radek stopped typing and looked up at the two of them. “Full bird? What’s that?” Sheppard chuckled and explained to him that that’s what a full Colonel is called. “Ah. I see. Wait, you got promoted?”

He gave a half-grin and nodded. “Ceremony and everything. At least now I’m on the same level as Colonel Carter and Colonel Caldwell. I’ve never been the greatest at being under someone’s command.

Nikki snorted and shook her head. “That’s a shocker.” She gave him a sassy grin and walked back into the cockpit to finish her test.

“So, Zalenka, how long until she’s up and ready to take a test flight?”

“Well...let’s see. Nikki, are you done with your tests?” There was a loud beep and then she turned to them and said, “Sure am. If you’re done with yours, I’d be more than happy to take her out with the Colonel here. If something goes wrong, I should be able to fix it.”

Radek nodded and started gathering his equipment. Nikki helped unload everything that wasn’t necessary and then climbed in. John was already sitting in the pilot’s seat when she walked into the cockpit. “I don’t suppose there’s any chance of you letting me fly her?”

John smirked. “Not a chance. I’ve been gone for three weeks. That’s far too long. I need to...reacquaint myself with her. You understand.”

She snorted and sat down in the co-pilot’s chair and started running diagnostics that would run the entire time they were in the air. John radioed the control room and let them know they were taking her out on a test flight. “Have someone watching the sensors and keeping an eye on the jumper just to be sure. If you don’t hear from us in twenty minutes, try to get ahold of us. Just to be on the safe side.”

Lorne’s voice came over the radio, “Copy that. You’re good to go.”

“See you in a little bit, Major. Be sure to keep the porch light on for us.”

The bay doors opened and the jumper rose up and out of the jumper bay. John eased her up to a good altitude and held steady for a while just to make sure she wasn’t going to suddenly drop out of the sky.

They didn’t talk for a while. Neither knowing what to really say, but the silence was getting to Nikki.

“So...Colonel.” She looked over at him and he turned to look at her. “Yes, Dr.?”

“Nikki.” He almost smiled. “Nikki. Is there something on your mind?”

“Well, now that you mention it. I was wondering what you did while you were back on Earth. You were gone a long time for a promotion.”

“I took a week and went to visit my brother and his family. After our conversations…I figured it was the right thing to do.”

She nodded, “How did it go?”

John hesitated before he answered, “Well, it was a bit rocky at first. Dave didn’t know what to expect when I showed up at his doorstep after a year or so. Then things were fine. Until I had to leave. We got into this big argument about why I’m wasting my life on some top secret base where I can’t even tell my own family where I’m at. Let’s just say it didn’t end on a good note.”

Nikki looked over at him. She could see the tension that had come between his shoulders. “Maybe the President would give them security clearance. I mean, just to enough to know that you’re doing something really important and all. He did that for Dr. Weir, didn’t he?”

John nodded, “Yeah, he did, but that was when we weren’t sure if we would ever see Earth again. I don’t know. I guess it’s worth looking into.”

She focused back on her diagnostics, not sure what to say to redirect the conversation away from the tension. She wanted to say something to lighten the mood a bit, but wasn’t sure what.

“So how did Ronon and Teyla like being on Earth? What did they do while you were with Dave?”

“They loved it. Colonel Cam Mitchell took them to a few tourist places. I think he took them surfing one day. I’m pretty sure they were in California for the majority of it. I met up with them for a few hours while I was staying with Dave. Dave had gone to the office and his wife Becca was running some errands, so there was nothing to do. The kids were in school. I don’t know what all they did exactly, but I know they had a good time.”

She smiled, “Well, that’s good! I’m glad to hear it. I bet they’re glad to be back though.”

John nodded, “Yeah. Ronon told me once he didn’t want to leave the galaxy until every Wraith was killed, but…he had a good time nonetheless. I’m sure he can sleep easier now that he’s back and he can go kill as many Wraith as he wants again.”

Nikki chuckled, “It wouldn’t surprise me. I have another question.”

“I may have an answer.”

She rolled her eyes, “I heard you call him Chewy.”

John glanced over at her. “That’s not a question.”

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes again. “Why do you call him that?”

“Please tell me you’ve seen Star Wars.”

She looked over at him, “Well, duh. That’s why?”

He nodded with a smirk on his face. “Yep! First time I saw him, that’s the first thing that came to mind.”

Nikki nodded, thinking about it. “Huh. I can see it.”

**SGA**

A couple of hours later, they were back in Atlantis and making their way to the mess hall. Lunch was almost over and they were both starving.

She was right at the end of telling one of her many stories that tended to make people laugh. They walked through the mess hall doors laughing and smiling as they made their way to get food.

Rodney looked up when he heard the familiar sound of Sheppard’s laugh. He looked over in the direction he had heard it and watched as the Colonel and Nikki crossed the mess hall and got in line to get food. He looked over at Ronon and Teyla. “Is there something going on between those two? They’re awfully...happy.”

Ronon looked up from his food. “What are you talking about, McKay?”

He pointed over to the couple getting their food. John was recounting something and using big hand gestures. The look on his face was pure happiness. None of them had seen him that happy in a long time. Ronon and Teyla exchanged looks and smiled. Teyla leaned forward, “Do you not remember the conversation we had with John while on Earth before we came back?”

Rodney scoured his brain for a minute before looking back up at Teyla. “No. We had a conversation about Sheppard and Teagan?”

Ronon grunted and nodded.

_They had all gone out to eat at a sit-down restaurant not too far from the base. They were celebrating in their own little way the Colonel’s promotion. They had all been laughing and having a good time while waiting for their food. And then, Ronon spoke up._

_“So, Shep. What’s going on between you and Nikki?” John looked up at his friend and raised his eyebrow. “What are you talking about?”_

_Teyla smiled and leaned towards him. “We all see the smiles you two share not so secretly. And you seem...happier than usual.”_

_John shrugged and looked down at the table. “We’re friends. That’s all. Just like she’s friends with you guys.”_

_Ronon grunted and shook his head. “We all know you like her, Shep. Why don’t you man up and tell her?” John almost choked on the beer he had just taken a sip of. “Excuse me? She doesn’t like me, so there’s nothing to man up about.”_

_Ronon smiled, “So you do like her! I knew it.” He turned to Teyla. “I told you he liked her.”_

_Teyla’s smile got bigger as she nodded. “I knew he did just by the glances they would throw each other when they thought the other wasn’t looking. John, you may need a lesson in subtlety while we’re on your...in your country.” She almost slipped up and said on your planet while in a crowded restaurant. That wouldn’t have been good._

_John shook his head and looked away. “I don’t know what you guys are talking about. She’s just a flirt. She flirts with all the guys. And plus, I’m the CMO of...the base. I don’t know how appropriate a relationship would be.”_

_Teyla shook her head at him and leaned back in her seat. “She is a scientist, John. She is not in the military. I’ve become aware of the different rules and regulations of your military.” Ronon nodded his head, “Yeah, same here. And she’s not on the team.”_

_Teyla continued what Ronon was getting at. “So therefore it isn’t against any of your rules.”_

_Sheppard nodded and looked up at both of them watching him. “I see you two have given this a lot of thought. You know, it’s kind of creepy that you guys have been watching me.”_

_Ronon grunted and Teyla smiled. “We are only trying to help, John.”_

_“You know she’s right, Shep. We just want to see you happy for once. Now grow a set and tell her. Or I will.”_

_John looked at his beer. “She said she has her eye on someone already.”_

_Teyla looked from Ronon back to John. “When did she say this?”_

_“When were on that planet with the Atlans before you guys got there. She told me she wasn’t ready to tell him yet. All I got out of it was that it wasn’t Chewy here and it wasn’t a marine.”_

_Ronon raised an eyebrow. “Why would you think it was me?”_

_He shrugged. “She said underneath all your intimidation, you’re really big sweetheart. So, it made me wonder. I asked and she said no.”_

_Ronon smirked, “Looks like I’ll have to have another sparring session with her when we get back.”_

_John snorted, but didn’t comment. Teyla reached forward and placed her hand on his gently, causing him to look up at her. “Do you really have doubts that she is not talking about you?”_

_When he didn’t answer her, it confirmed her suspicions. “John, I cannot make you see the truth because I know how stubborn you are. That being said…you need to talk to her. Tell her how you feel. You never know. The outcome may surprise you.”_

_John nodded, “You’re right.”_

_Rodney looked up from his phone. “Hm? What are we talking about?”_

“Oh. I was talking to Katie Brown while we were there. That must have been during that conversation. I totally tuned it out. Are you sure they like each other?”

Ronon grunted again and Teyla rolled her eyes. “We are very certain. If you need more proof, just look at them.” He turned and watched as they sat at a table by themselves where no one else was around. He was telling another story and watching as she couldn’t contain her laughter. He had a huge smile on his face. “Huh, I guess you’re right. So is he going to do anything about it?”

He turned and looked back at his teammates. Teyla shrugged and sighed. Ronon looked over at them and continued watching them. “We don’t know. He played it off as nothing on Earth, but it’s obvious it’s not nothing.”

Ronon got a mischievous look on his face and turned to Teyla. “I know that look, Ronon. What are you planning?”

He smiled and leaned in closer to the table and told Rodney and Teyla his plan, making sure no one around them could overhear.


	7. Can I Ask You A Question?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John and Nikki get locked in a room together for a while thanks to our favorite genius, our favorite caveman, and our favorite xena warrior. How will the two of them react to their situation?

** Chapter 4 **

Ronon and Teyla followed Rodney to his lab. They refused to leave McKay alone in case he accidentally slipped up and told Sheppard their plan. Knowing him, he would act suspicious, John would start asking questions, and then before you know it, their plan was out in the open.

The plan was to lure both of them to the same room and then cut off power to the door to that room, locking them in for a while. Ronon wanted to cut off communications as well, but they decided it would just make Sheppard panic if he were unable to get ahold of anyone.

Rodney was typing away at his laptop trying to figure out a way to shut off power to only that room. “Okay, I think I’ve got it. Go ahead and lure them there.”

Teyla tapped her com, “Colonel Sheppard, this is Teyla. Please respond.”

“Go ahead, Teyla.” She looked up at Ronon and he nodded. “There seems to be some kind of power failure in a section near your location. Rodney was wondering if you could go check it out.”

“That’s fine. Just tell me where to go.” Teyla relayed where to go and Ronon tapped his com. “Dr. Nikki Teagan, please respond.”

There was a moment of silence and then her voice crackled over the radio. “This is Teagan.”

“McKay needs you to go to a certain section of the city and check out a power failure. Said you’d be able to fix it.”

She snorted before she responded. “Of course he does. What’s the location?” Ronon told her where to go and then they sat back and watched the internal sensors as both Sheppard and Teagan approached the room from opposite directions.

**SGA**

John rounded the corner and found the room Teyla had told him to go to. He entered it and walked straight over to the control panel on the wall. He was about to hit his com when Nikki walked in and stopped and stared at him. “Colonel. What are you doing here?”

“I could ask the same of you.” And then the door slammed shut behind Nikki. She turned around and waved her hand over the door sensor. Nothing happened. She waved it again, but still nothing happened.

She walked over to the control panel John was standing at. He moved aside since she actually knew what she was doing. She switched around a couple of crystals, but still nothing happened. She messed around with the panel for a good five minutes before finally giving up. “There’s nothing I can do from this end.”

John hit his com. “McKay, I’m trapped in that room Teyla sent me to. Any way you can open the door and let us out?”

Rodney looked over at Teyla and Ronon and they smiled. “Us? Colonel, who else is with you?”

Sheppard almost rolled his eyes. “Nikki’s with me. Now can you open the damn door or not?”

“Give me a few minutes to see what I can do.”

“Just hurry it up, Rodney. Let me know when you have something.”

“Will do. McKay out.”

John turned back to Nikki. “Well, McKay is working on it.”

She raised an eyebrow at him. “You said Teyla sent you here? Why’d she send you here?”

He moved over to a bench that was conveniently sitting against the opposite wall. “She said McKay wanted me to check out some power failure since I was closer.”

She moved and sat down next to him. “Wait, Ronon asked me to come check out a power failure here. According to him, McKay wanted me to check it out and fix it.”

They looked at each and held eye contact for a minute. Then John reached up and hit his com. “Ronon. Teyla. Please respond.”

They looked at each other and Teyla sighed. “Well, that didn’t take long.”

Rodney snorted, “Well, what did you expect? Teagan is a scientist. She’s smarter than Zalenka. And Sheppard. Well, I have to admit he’s smarter than he looks. Actually passed the Mensa. That’s enough to throw you for a loop.”

“Ronon. Teyla. Please respond.” Teyla reached up and hit her com. “Yes, Colonel?”

“What the hell is going on?” She looked over at Ronon. “I do not know what you mean.”

“Sure you do. And so does Ronon. Now, tell me what the hell is going on or both of you will be going on the next science mission to the mainland. Overnight.”

“We figured two heads were better than one when dealing with this power failure. McKay said if it was not fixed it could mean other problems for Atlantis. You are smart, John, so I recommended to Rodney that you should assist Dr. Teagan in the repairs. I hope this is alright with you, John.”

Sheppard rolled his eyes and looked at Nikki. “You’re still not off the hook. Just so you know. Let me know when McKay figures things out.”

“I will, John. Teyla out.”

Sheppard and Nikki just sat there for a few minutes, neither knowing what exactly to say. It was obvious this was planned out and John had a pretty good guess as to why.

“Well, Colonel. It looks like we’re going to be stuck in here together for a while.”

“John.” She looked at him with one eyebrow raised. “What?”

He looked over at her and rested his head against the wall. “Call me John. You don’t have to use my rank all the time. Especially when we’re stuck in a room together. What is with the two of us getting stuck together alone?”

She smiled and scooted a little closer to him. “I have no idea, _John._ It would seem the universe is messing with our heads.”

John chuckled, but let it drop.

**SGA**

McKay snapped his fingers together. “I have an idea. We have no way of knowing when he finally asks her and when we can open the doors. Unless I tap into the city’s _cameras_ and we do a little investigating.”

Teyla shook her head. “I don’t know, Rodney. I feel that would invade the Colonel’s privacy a bit too much.”

Ronon smirked, “I think it’s a great idea. That way we know he actually manned up and did it. It’ll only be us three watching and we’re his friends. He doesn’t have to know.” He threw McKay a pointed look as if to say, “And you better not tell him.”

Rodney threw his hands into the air. “I won’t! I swear!”

Teyla sighed and nodded her head. “Go ahead, Rodney. But make sure only the three of us see this.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll do what I can.”

A couple of minutes later, a screen popped up on his laptop. It was a clear view of Sheppard and Nikki sitting close together on a bench on the other side of the room. Ronon and Teyla grabbed chairs and brought them over. They crowded around the laptop. “Is there sound to this video?”

Rodney nodded, “Yeah. They’re just not talking yet.”

Ronon grunted. “Why?”

McKay looked at him incredulously. “How the hell am I supposed to know? I’ve been here the whole time!”

Teyla sighed, “John is not a very talkative person, especially in these types of situations. I just hope Nikki will get him talking.”

Ronon grunted and they all focused their attention on the screen, hoping their friend would finally make the right move.

**SGA**

“So. _John._ I strictly remember you saying back on the planet that when we got back, we were both going to tell who we like that…you know…we like them.”

John glanced over at her. “Yeah, I did.”

Nikki eyed him, curiously. “So, have you told her yet?”

He shook his head, looking away from her. “No. I don’t think she’s interested.”

Nikki raised an eyebrow in his direction. “Well, you’re never going to know for sure until you man up and tell her how you feel, you know.”

John snorted at the irony of the situation. “You sound just like Ronon, you know that?”

Nikki smiled, “So, Ronon knows who it is, but I don’t? I’m hurt!”

He rolled his eyes. “If it makes you feel any better, Teyla knows too. And McKay…well, I’m pretty sure he wasn’t paying attention during that conversation, so I think you’re safe with that one.”

She shook her head, looking away from him. “When are you going to tell her?”

He shrugged. “I’ve been thinking about it. I guess I was waiting for the right opportunity or something.”

He turned his head towards her. “What about you? Have you told him?”

She shook her head, looking down at her hands. “Nope. I’m as guilty as you are. Besides…I’m in the same boat as you. I don’t think he feels the same way. I mean…I’m just a scientist.”

John shook his head, “You’re not just a scientist, Nikki. You’re way more than that.”

She looked up at him curiously. “Oh yeah? What makes you say that?”

“Well, we’ve gotten to know each other pretty well in the past few months you’ve been here. You’re not like the other scientists. For one, you actually stand up to McKay and not cower away from him.”

She snorted, “Yeah, I speak my mind. See, a lot of guys don’t like that, especially when I’m not afraid to tell them how it is.”

He nodded, “It’s a good quality though. If it makes you feel any better, I like it.”

She smiled, “That’s because you tell me how it is right back. You’re not afraid to let me know what you think about something.”

He shook his head, “No, I’m not. You know why?”

“Why?”

“Because I know you won’t judge me on what I think. A lot of people do. That’s why I don’t open up to just anyone.”

She smiled and rested her head back against the wall. “Well, then it’s a good thing we’re friends isn’t it?”

His smile wavered the slightest bit, but he nodded. “Yeah. It’s a good thing.”

**SGA**

Rodney stared at the screen. “Um…did he just get friend-zoned?”

Ronon looked over at him curiously, “What’s that?”

Rodney tore his gaze away from the screen. “Where a guy and a girl are good friends, but one of them likes the other. The one that doesn’t like the other puts them in the friend-zone and talks about who they like and how they’re the best of friends. The one that likes the other has to settle for only being friends and watch the other person date other people. I guess it could happen to…same sex couples too. A guy and a guy…a girl and a girl…But! In this case, John is being friend-zoned by Nikki. Or…is he?”

Teyla looked at the screen and her brow furrowed. “It seems like she likes John though. Maybe she is just nervous and thinks he likes someone else when it’s actually her that he likes.”

Ronon shook his head. “This is all way too confusing.”

Rodney snorted. “You’re telling me. So, Sheppard likes Nikki, but he thinks she likes another guy and is friend-zoning him. Nikki likes Sheppard, but thinks he likes another girl and is friend-zoning her. This…is like the ultimate love triangle, only without the extra person getting in the way.”

Ronon’s brow furrowed. “What the hell is a love triangle?”

McKay made a face at him, but explained anyway. “When one person likes someone, that person likes another person, and that person likes the first person. It just keeps going round and round and no one wins. Like one big circle, only…in the shape of a triangle.”

Ronon shook his head, “Your planet’s weird.”

Rodney snorted, “You can say that again.”

Teyla frowned, “I am all but certain that the person Nikki likes is John. We already know that the person John likes is Nikki. They need to tell each other before this gets out of control and both of them get hurt.”

McKay looked over at her. “How would they get hurt? There’s no actual third person. Or fourth, for that matter.”

“Because John believes that Nikki likes another man who is not him, therefore he is hurt that she does not like him. Nikki believes that John likes another woman who is not her, therefore she is hurt that he does not like her. As you said, it goes around in a circle.”

Rodney looked back at the screen where both John and Nikki were just sitting there, not talking. They were both sucked into their own little worlds, both worried about who the other person liked.

“Does anyone else get the feeling that this is turning into one big soap opera?”

Ronon frowned. “What the hell is a soap opera?”

“You seriously need to get educated on Earth culture.”

**SGA**

“Can I ask you a question, John?”

He turned and looked at Nikki. “Why not.”

She smirked and rolled her eyes. “Why are you so close to your team and not so much with everyone else?”

He stopped and thought about that for a minute. “Every time I walk through the stargate, I know that my team has my six and they know I have theirs.”

“Well yeah, but it’s more than that. I see the way you guys interact with each other.”

He looked away and looked down at his hands. “You know I don’t really have anyone to go back to on Earth. I mean…my dad died a year ago and before that whenever I’d see him, we’d always fight. I did try to patch things up with Dave, but…that didn’t work out too well. My point is...They mean more to me than friends. They’re...my family. Teyla...is like the sister I never had. She acts like a mother for the team and she’s perfect for the job. Ronon, hah. Well, he’s one of a kind. I’ve never seen as much loyalty as he has for his team. I can always count on him to have my six and do his damnedest to do everything he can to get us all home. I don’t know what we’d...I’d do without him here.”

Nikki nodded her head. She reached over and grabbed John’s hand and squeezed it. “What about Rodney?”

He chuckled to himself. “Ah, Rodney. He can be arrogant, full of himself, over the top, and obnoxious, but…he has a good heart. He’s saved my ass more times than I can count. He’s kind of like the little brother of the group. The annoying one that drives you crazy, but you can’t seem to live without him. Don’t tell him this, but he’s definitely an important part of my team.”

“You really care about your team. I have never seen someone so attached and thankful for their teammates. Is there anyone else on this base that’s in your adopted family?”

He smiled and blushed slightly. “Well. Elizabeth means a great deal to me. She’s like an aunt or something, hah. And then there’s Beckett and Lorne. Lorne’s like a brother to me. More of a brother than my real one. How sad is that.”

She squeezed his hand again and placed her other hand on his arm. “I don’t know what I’d do without these people. I can’t imagine going back to my life before Atlantis. All I had then was a dad who never wanted me to be happy, a brother who took my dad’s side and an ex-wife who…oh yeah, took my dad’s side.”

“Have you told any of them any of this?” He laughed and looked at her. “For one, I’m not good when it comes to talking about…feelings. This right here is rare. Though, you do seem to get it out of me more often than anyone else ever has. And for two…well, to them I’m probably just their team leader and the one who comes to rescue their asses when they get in trouble.”

“Maybe you should tell them. At least in your own little way.”

He paused for a minute to collect his thoughts. “I told Teyla once when Ronon was in trouble that I’d give my life for any one of them. And I would. I wouldn’t hesitate. Not for a second.”

Nikki rested her head on his shoulder. “You’re very protective of them. I wouldn’t want to get on your bad side.”

“I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”

He smiled down at her before resting his head on hers and they fell into a comfortable silence.

“So I hear you’ve been taking flying lessons with Lorne.”

She nodded, “Yes, I have. Since a certain pilot won’t teach me, I had to learn somehow.”

He nodded his head and stared at the opposite wall. “I’ll take you out flying sometime if you want.” She lifted her head from his shoulder and stared at him. “You will?”

He turned and his eyes connected with hers. A small smile appeared on his face. “As long as you don’t kill us.” She rolled her eyes and bumped his shoulder with hers. His smile grew and he continued to stare at her. “Why are you staring at me?”

He chuckled and looked away. “No reason.”

**SGA**

“Huh. Don’t they make a cute couple.”

Ronon grunted and watched the screen. He was getting a little frustrated with Sheppard for continually avoiding the obvious. He had had several openings, but he didn’t take a single one. He kept changing the subject.

“Ronon, are you sure this was such a good idea? If he finds out we were behind this, he will not be too happy with us.” Ronon turned and looked at Teyla. “He won’t find out. As long as McKay here keeps his mouth shut.”

“I won’t tell him! Jeeze, you act as if I can’t keep a secret.” Teyla and Ronon exchanged a glance and rolled their eyes.

“Okay. See! He’s getting somewhere now! Maybe…”

**SGA**

The silence was getting to Nikki. John was her friend and they were just sitting here in silence. There was something wrong with that picture. It was a comfortable silence, but a silence nonetheless.

“So…let’s play a game.”

John turned his head to look at her incredulously. “A game?”

She nodded, “Yeah! A game. I’ll ask a question, and you answer it. Then I have to answer my own question or a similar version to it. Then it’s your turn to ask a question.”

He stared at her for a moment, wondering what sort of problems this could get him into. “Okay...”

She smiled, “Okay! Hm…let’s see. I’ll start off with some simple ones. Like…what’s your favorite color?”

He thought about it for a second, “Green.”

She smirked, “Really? I would have guessed black.”

He chuckled, “Yeah, I’ve heard I’m full of surprises. What’s yours?”

“Blue. My first car was blue, basically all my lead ropes are blue. When I was a kid, I’d wear a blue ribbon in my hair.”

He smiled, picturing a younger version of Nikki wearing a blue ribbon wrapped around her ponytail. “Okay. Favorite food.”

She didn’t even hesitate with her answer. “My mom used to experiment when she cooked. She’d throw things together that probably would normally never be put together. One night she made this concoction that looked like it would taste weird, but it was actually pretty good. She called it screwy noodle. It has scrambled hamburger, corn, a can of cream of mushroom to keep everything together, a layer of spiral noodles, and then a thick layer of cream cheese. Every time I go home now, I ask her to make it for me.”

He smiled, “It sounds like it’d be good.”

She nodded, “I’ll have to get the recipe and make it for you sometime. We’ll have to invite Alex though because he would kill me if he found out I made it and he didn’t get any.”

He chuckled and nodded, “Sounds like a plan. We can make it a group thing too. Turn it into a movie night or poker night or something. Just hang out.”

She looked up at him and smiled. “I’d love that. Now. Spill. Favorite food.”

This one took him a moment. “I’d have to say…a nice, juicy, homemade hamburger. I have my own recipe I perfected back after my divorce when I was cooking for one again. I’ll have to make some sometime.”

She nodded, “I haven’t had a good hamburger in…years.”

He nodded, “It’s settled then. Maybe this weekend we can all get together and I’ll make some.”

She nodded, “Okay. My turn. Um…first car.”

He smiled, “’80’s Camaro. I loved that car.”

Nikki smiled, “’67 Impala. It was my Dad’s and he gave it to me when I turned sixteen. I loved that car. Still have it too.”

John’s smile widened a fraction, “Those are nice cars.”

Nikki nodded, “Yeah, they are. It’s your turn.”

He paused for a moment, “Is this like truth or dare? Where you have to answer the question truthfully?”

Her eyes narrowed at him, but she nodded slowly. “The point is to get to know the person, so yeah. Essentially, the point is to be honest and open with each other no matter the question. Though, I will allow one pass per person.”

John nodded, thinking over his next question. “Sounds fair. Hm. What’s your favorite thing to do when no one else is around?”

She thought about it, considering her options. “I like to read. I’m a huge book nerd.”

He smiled, thinking about his own book collection. “That doesn’t surprise me.”

She rolled her eyes, “Okay then, what about you, huh? What’s your favorite thing to do?”

He looked away from her and paused. She’d already caught him, so he might as well just say it. “I like to play the piano. And even the guitar sometimes. Just get lost in the music for a while.”

“Have you written any songs? Other than…that one?”

He smiled softly and looked at his hands. “Yeah, a few. They’re not very good, but…it’s not like anyone will ever hear them, so it’s okay.”

“I’d like to someday.”

He looked up at her. “Really?”

She nodded, “Yeah. The one I heard was beautiful. I’d love to hear more.”

He smiled shyly and looked away. “Okay, your turn.”

“Let’s try a more personal one. When did you lose your virginity?”

He blushed, but answered anyway. “When I was fifteen. Nancy and I had been dating for a while. Of course, about three months later she moved away. Her dad got transferred to another office and she had to go with. They moved back seven or eight months later.”

Nikki’s brow furrowed, but she let it drop. It was probably just a coincidence, but her mind had went there automatically. He looked up at her expectantly, waiting for an answer.

“Oh, right. Um…I think I was sixteen. Yeah, real douche too. Your first love always breaks your heart.”

He nodded, “Yeah, I hear you there. So…I’m dying to know. And since you said we were such good friends…”

He was looking down at his hands, trying to get up the courage to ask what he really wanted to know. Nikki looked at him and raised one of her eyebrows questioningly. “Yes…?”

He took a deep breath and just blurted it out, “I want to know who you like.”

Her mouth dropped open just a bit, shocked at the question. She hadn’t been expecting him to ask that. She looked down at her hands, not sure if she had the courage to tell him yet.

“I think I’ll use my pass now.”

He looked up at her and got an idea. “If you tell me who you like, I’ll tell you who I like.”

She looked him in the eye and hesitated. Did she dare?

_What if it’s all in my imagination and he likes someone else? I’ll look like an idiot if I just tell him. Should I lie and tell him I like one of the pilots? He already knows it’s not a marine…No. I have to be honest with him. He’s been nothing but honest with me so far. It doesn’t matter if this is about to be the most mortifying experience in your life. You know…trapped in a locked room with the man you so desperately want and he wants someone else. Yeah, how humiliating._

She studied him, trying to see if she could figure out if he was going to lie to her or what. She really didn’t know what she was looking for.

_Oh, just suck it up already, Nikki. If he doesn’t like you, then you’ll get over it. You can still be friends. It’ll be a little awkward at first, but you can still be friends. It’ll be okay. Just…grow some balls and tell him._

She nodded, “Okay.”

John took another deep breath, not sure if would be able to survive the humiliation if this went completely south. But…he trusted Ronon and Teyla and they said she liked him, so…all bets were on them.

“You go first.”

Nikki nodded, taking in a couple of deep breaths, extremely nervous. “I…uh. You see…Oh, what the hell. Who cares if this is about to be the most humiliating experience in my entire life.”

She looked down at her hands, not being able to stop them from shaking. “It’s you.”

The room was silent and Nikki thought she was about to die from an anxiety attack. She finally got the courage to look up at him and what she found shocked her.

He had a huge smile on his face and he was watching her. “What?”

He shook his head slowly. “It’s you too.”

A smile of her own started to spread across your face. “Really?”

He nodded, “Yeah. Who else would it be?”

She shook her head, her smile still growing. “I don’t know. I was not expecting that though.”

He chuckled, his smile dimming slightly, but it brightened all the more in his eyes.

She laughed softly, incredulously, and they both closed the distance and their lips met. It was just a light kiss that last a few seconds. John pulled away slightly and stared into her eyes. “Would this be a good time to ask if you’d like to have dinner sometime?” She laughed and her smile lit her entire face. “I’d love to. On one condition.”

He raised an eyebrow. “And what is that?” She paused to let the suspense grow a little. “You have to kiss me again. And kiss me like you mean it.” His smile was just as powerful as hers was. “I think that can be arranged.”

He grabbed both sides of her head with his hands and kissed her passionately. After a moment, his right hand slid to cup the back of her neck and his thumb on his left hand was rubbing circles on her cheek. Her hands went up and rested on his chest. They stayed that way for a few minutes, just reveling in each other’s scents and touch.

She pulled back this time and looked at him. “Wow. You know, some of the other scientists have this theory that you’re a pretty good kisser.”

“Oh, really? And did I just prove them right?” She giggled and rolled her eyes. “I’ll let you figure that one out on your own.”

He snorted and pulled her in for another kiss.

**SGA**

Ronon fist pumped the air. “It’s about damn time, Sheppard!” Teyla grinned and joined in with Ronon’s happiness for their friend. Rodney turned to look at them. “You know what bothers me?”

“Oh don’t you start, McKay. Just be happy for them.”

He nodded, “Oh, I am. Believe me. But…it’s just something that Sheppard said earlier. I didn’t really think about it until now.”

Teyla turned to look at him, sobering up a little from her excitement. “What is that, Rodney?”

“Well, he said that he’s sure he’s just a team leader to us and someone who comes and saves our asses when we get in trouble. Does he really think he doesn’t mean that much to us? I mean, I don’t know about you guys, but…he’s more than that.”

Teyla nodded and looked back at the screen. “I agree. It saddens me that he thinks we think so little of him. Surely he must know he means more to us. I wonder if there is anything we can do to make him see the truth.”

Rodney nodded and started thinking. “Maybe we could..no, that’d never work. Oh! How about..no..that wouldn’t work either.”

Ronon snorted, “We can’t do anything obvious. Otherwise he’s gonna know we heard everything he said.”

“Ronon is right. Maybe if we just do some little things that show how much we care. Like things we say in a conversation? He must not know we were listening and watching this.”

Rodney nodded and turned back to the screen. “Um...so when should I open the door?”

Ronon smiled. “Oh, give them some more time. I’m sure they’re not in any hurry to leave.”


	8. First Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for John and Nikki's first date! Will John be able to come up with something for them to do and have it be memorable for both of them?

**Chapter 7**

About five days after John and Nikki were stuck in that room together was the day of their first date. He hadn’t wanted to make it too soon and seem desperate, but he hadn’t wanted to put it off either and make it seem like he really wasn’t interested. Also, he really wanted to go on the date with her and spend some time alone with her.

Ever since they got out of that room, he had been trying to figure out what he could possibly do for their first date. The first date was supposed to make a good impression, be magical, memorable.

For the past couple of days, he had been fidgety and kind of distracted. Teyla had been the only one to really notice it at first until she mentioned it to the rest of the team.

They were sitting at lunch the day of the date. McKay had been rambling on and on about some kind of new discovery he had made. John was tuning him out, trying to figure out what he can do to impress Nikki.

“Are you even listening to me? Sheppard? Sheppard. Colonel!” John snapped out of it and turned to look at Rodney. His whole team was watching him. “What? Did you say something?”

Rodney raised his eyebrows and got a worried expression on his face. “What is up with you?”

He shook his head. “What do you mean? I’m fine.”

Teyla rested her hand on John’s forearm. “John, you have not been yourself lately. You have been…distracted. Is there something wrong?”

John looked down at his food. “No. I’ve just been trying to come up with some good idea for the date tonight. It’s been almost a week and I still have no idea what I’m going to do yet.”

He looked up at Teyla and sighed. She smiled, “I would be more than happy to help you plan, if you wish, John.”

Ronon nodded, “Yeah, me too.”

Ronon looked at McKay, who just sat there staring at the group. He kicked Rodney. “Ow! Okay! Me too. Although I don’t know how much help I’ll be.” Ronon rolled his eyes and continued eating.

“Thanks guys. So. Any ideas?” John looked back at Teyla and then at Ronon.

They spent the next two and a half hours trading ideas back and forth before John was finally satisfied with that they had come up with. He thanked his friends and then took off out of the mess hall to go get things ready. He only had three and a half hours before he had to be at her door.

He went straight for Elizabeth’s office to get started.

**SGA**

Three and a half hours later, he was standing outside of Nikki’s quarters. He was wearing black dress pants, a white button down shirt with the first couple of buttons undone, and a black jacket. He wanted to look his best for the date, but he didn’t want to be _too_ dressed up. That just wasn’t like him.

He straightened his jacket and ran a hand through his messy hair. He let out a nervous shaky breath and waved his hand over the door sensor.

He took a deep breath to calm himself. McKay always called him Kirk for being the never-failing lady’s man, but he really wasn’t. Sure, he knew how to throw his smile in their direction and catch their eye, but when it came to actually dating, it made him more nervous than walking right onto a battlefield, guns blazing.

What if he said the wrong thing? What if he made a move and she didn’t want him to? What if he made the wrong move? What if he didn’t make a move when she wanted him to? Tons of what if questions were swirling around his mind never ending. The first date was always the hardest for him. Of course, he rarely ever got past the first date. That was probably why first dates were always the hardest.

The door opened and Nikki was standing there looking as beautiful as ever. She had her hair down and slightly curled at the ends. She was wearing a blue and white sundress.

“Wow. You look absolutely amazing.”

She smiled, “You don’t look too bad yourself there, handsome.” He smiled and held out his elbow for her.

She put her arm through his and he led her through the halls towards the jumper bay. “So, where are we going?”

He looked down at her and smiled. “You’ll have to wait and find out when we get there.”

She rolled her eyes, but followed him. They walked into the jumper bay and she narrowed her eyes at him. She was starting to get suspicious. He looked down at her again. “Just trust me, okay?”

She nodded as he led her into the back of one of the jumpers. He sat down in the pilot’s chair and radioed the control room. “Control room, this is Sheppard. I’m taking jumper one out for a while. We’ll be back in a little while.”

“Copy that, sir. We’ll leave the porch light on.”

“Good. Sheppard out.”

Nikki sat down in the co-pilot’s chair and just watched Sheppard work the controls. “You really are a mystery, you know that, John?”

He smirked and nodded. “That’s not the first time someone’s told me that. Might want to get comfortable. It’s about a half hour ride to where we’re going.”

She rolled her eyes again and sat back in the chair. They made small talk during the flight. And then suddenly, Sheppard started dropping lower, but there wasn’t land for miles still. She watched as he maneuvered the jumper closer and closer to the water. “Um, John, what are you doing?”

“Just watch and see. You’ll love it.”

He dipped the jumper down into the water and continued forward for a couple more minutes. Where was he taking her?

That’s when she looked up and saw a big coral reef looming up ahead. When they reached it, he dropped the jumper down onto the bed of ocean they were at. He turned and looked at her reaction. She was gazing admiringly up at the beautiful sight. There was tons of different colored coral everywhere, along with what seemed to be thousands of pretty colored fish swimming here and there. Some had been startled by the jumper, but they seemed to be fine now.

“John…this…this is beautiful. How did you find this place?” He smiled and stood up. He moved to the back of the jumper and retrieved a basket and a blanket. He moved back into the cockpit and then closed the doors to the rear compartment. He spread the blanket down on the floor against the door and set the basket down on top of it.

John walked over to Nikki and held out his hand. “Would you like to join me and enjoy the view while we eat?” She looked up at him with the biggest smile on her face. She took his hand and followed him over to the doors. They sat down on the blanket and he unloaded the basket.

He had brought turkey sandwiches, some grapes, slices of apple, and some wine. “Care for some wine?”

Her smile got brighter. “Please.” He dug out two wine glasses and poured both of them a glass of wine before distributing the food. “Hm. Turkey sandwiches, fruit, and wine…” He grimaced and set down the bottle. “Yeah, sorry about that. I’m not that great of a cook, so I had to bribe the kitchen staff.”

She placed a hand on his. “You didn’t let me finish.” He looked up at her with a question in his eyes. “With a breathtaking view. I love it.” His smile was almost as bright as hers. He looked over at the coral. “Yeah, it sure is a nice sight.”

“I wasn’t only talking about the coral.” He turned and looked at her. She was staring at him intently. “Neither was I.” They both blushed a little and took a sip of wine.

They ate their meal and went through a couple of glasses of wine each. He poured them another glass each and set the bottle off to the side. They were already almost done with the first bottle.

He put all the leftovers into the basket and set the basket on one of the seats sitting nearby. He made a snap decision and wrapped his right arm around Nikki’s waist and pulled her over to him. She gasped a little at first, since she had been distracted by the coral, but then snuggled into his side to get comfortable as they stared up at the view.

“So tell me, John, why did you go to all of this trouble? I would have been satisfied with sitting on one of the balconies in Atlantis.”

He looked down at her with a smile in his eyes. “It’s our first date. I wanted to make it special.”

“So, does that mean there’s going to be a second?”

He smiled, “And a third, I hope. Maybe even a fourth after that if you’re not tired of me by then.”

She giggled and looked up at him with such a warm, beautiful smile.

“Have I ever told you how beautiful you are?”

She giggled again and shook her head. “No? Well, I need to change that, now don’t I?” His smile stretched onto his face, “You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my entire life.” She blushed a little at his words. He leaned down and placed his lips on hers. She kissed him back and carefully set her glass down to the side and he did the same. She placed her hand on his chest and then ran it up to wrap around his neck. He cupped her face with his left hand and then slowly slid his hand down her neck, down her arm, and then rested it on her waist.

They took it slow at first, adjusting to their position, their surroundings, the new sensations they were experiencing. Then she inched closer and managed to wrap both arms around his neck instead of just the one. He raised his other hand to rest on her back as he brought her closer to him.

As things started to heat up a little, the lights suddenly turned off. They didn’t even seem to notice. They kept getting closer until they were pressed up against each other. John slowly slid them down to lay on the floor.

He wasn’t going to take things too far tonight. It was only their first date, after all. They laid on the floor in each other’s arms as they kissed each other passionately. She rolled on top of him and he let her. She kept running her hands up and down his chest. He kept rubbing circles into her back to keep his hands from roaming too far.

She pulled away to catch her breath. She looked down at him and they stared into each other’s eyes. “Well, I can honestly say that this is the best date I’ve ever been on. Not to mention the first time I’ve ever been on a date with someone with such high standing in the military. I didn’t think you were allowed to go on dates with someone under your command.”

He smiled and nipped her lips once before responding. “Only if they’re in the military or on my team. You’re neither, so it’s not against the rules.”

“Ah, I see. Well, that’s too bad. I like being a rebel.”

He rolled his eyes and chuckled. He kept nipping at her lips, but it wasn’t getting him anywhere. She kept teasing him. He pushed his head up and brought his lips to her neck. He kissed up and down her neck, making her lean into him more. He kissed his way up her jawline and then traced her lips with his before finally letting them rest on hers.

Her teeth grazed his lips and his lips parted. She slipped her tongue inside his mouth and started exploring. He let her explore for a while before he started using his tongue to battle for dominance. He slid hers out of his mouth and then his tongue into hers. They kept going back and forth for a good fifteen minutes before they pulled apart to catch their breath again.

He looked up at her with a lopsided grin on his face. “How the hell did I manage to get a date with you?” She laughed and shook her head. “You know, I was just asking myself that very same question.”

He rolled his eyes and then glanced at his watch. They had been gone for hours already. It was probably time they start heading back since they had a half hour ride home. Especially since he had to get up really early for a mission the next morning.

“As much as I would love to stay here for a while longer, we should probably start heading back.”

She took his wrist and looked at his watch. She sighed and nodded. “You’re right. We both have to get up super early tomorrow.”

They sat up from their position, but she didn’t move off of him quite yet. She was straddling his thighs while he sat there with his hands rested on her legs. He reached up and pecked her lips one more time.

He looked around and noticed that during their little make-out session, they had knocked over his glass of wine. “Uh oh…McKay is going to be pissed at me.” She chuckled and reached for her own glass. She downed most of the glass with one drink and then offered the rest to him. He smirked, downed the rest of hers, reached for the bottle, and took a big swig.

She rolled her eyes. “Show off.”

He laughed wholeheartedly, took another drink, and then put the cork back on the bottle. She stood up and moved to help him clean up the mess. He placed the glasses in the basket while she folded up the blanket and then laid it on top of the basket. He didn’t have anything to clean up the spilled wine with, so he would have to come back and do that after they had gotten back to Atlantis.

They made the trip back home. This time it wasn’t that silent. They were laughing and telling more stories the entire way there. Not that the alcohol had anything to do with it…or the fact that they had busted out the wine and finished off the first bottle.

When they got back to Atlantis, he opened the rear compartment doors and then the rear hatch. He grabbed the basket in one hand and then entwined his fingers on his other hand with Nikki’s.

Right after they left the jumper bay, she had reached inside and grabbed the second wine bottle. They finished off half of it before they reached her door. They were both laughing and had huge smiles on their faces. He set the basket down on the floor, wrapped his arms around Nikki, pulled her into him, and their lips met moments later. They stayed like that for a few minutes, neither wanting to break away.

Finally, John pulled back and stared down at her admiringly. “Good night, Nikki.” She smiled up at him and then pecked his lips one last time. “Good night, John.”

She walked into her room and he watched as the doors closed behind her. He picked up the basket and made his way to the mess hall with the hugest smile on his face.

He walked in and found one table occupied. He hadn’t thought anyone would be in there since it was nearly two in the morning. He set the basket inside the door to the kitchen and made his way over to the table where his team sat. He sat down and they looked up at him. Ronon got a huge grin on his face at the sight of Sheppard swaying slightly and a huge grin plastered to his face, his eyes a little glassy.

“So, how’d the date go?”

Sheppard’s grin got even wider as he sat back in the chair and got comfortable. “Oh you know, it went well.” Ronon snorted and leaned towards him. “Shep, you wreak. Have you been drinking?”

He hadn’t told them that he had already planned on taking wine with him. He hadn’t thought that was a necessary detail. “Just wine.”

Teyla laughed at the sight of her friend. “How much did you drink?”

He looked like he was concentrating on something. “Um...a bottle and a half…I think.”

McKay snorted. “You do realize we’re going on a mission first thing in the morning, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. But I had fun. Well, I had more than fun. But you don’t need to know that.”

Ronon’s smile got even bigger. “So, what did you two lovebirds do?” John rolled his eyes, but then launched into his recounting of their date. Leaving out how passionately they had made-out though. He wanted to leave some details to the imagination.

“So, you both had a good time then.”

John nodded a little bit too much, “Yeah! Yeah, we did. Of course we did. Very memorable, if I do say so myself. Even got myself a second date. It’s been a while since I’ve made it past the first.”

Rodney snorted, “What? Did you use the old method of one night stands a little too much?”

John frowned. “No, I did not wham bam, thank you ma’am, thank you very much. Well, once in a while, but who hasn’t.”

Rodney shook his head, “Man, you are drunk. You should…you know…get some sleep. And drink some water.”

John shook his head, “No, I don’t need water. I’m fine. I’m not drunk.”

Ronon grunted, “Yeah, that’s what you say now. In the morning you’re going to be pretty hungover. What kind of wine was it?”

He shrugged, “Uh, I think it was that Ruus wine Halling gave me a month back or so.”

Teyla grinned. “That would explain it. Did Nikki drink as much as you?”

John swayed a little in his seat as he tried to think back to the date. “Um…just about.”

Teyla’s smile widened, “You will both be quite hung over in the morning. I suggest taking some medicine when you wake up.”

John shook his head, “Nah, I don’t get bad hangovers anymore. Not since college. College…those were some good parties.”

Rodney snorted, “I knew it! I knew you were the partying type! You were the type who would party constantly and not do a damn thing besides get wasted and then get laid.”

John’s brow scrunched up. “I hardly ever partied in college, for your information. I was in the Air Force, so I had training all the time. And, I was taking a full load of classes. I never missed a single class.”

Rodney shook his head, “I don’t believe you.”

“Whatever. Don’t believe me. At least I’m fun and can drink. You don’t.”

McKay looked at him as if he were a lemon and he was trying to eat him. “I am fun! And I do drink. Occasionally.”

 Teyla smiled at Rodney. “Rodney, you have to take into consideration that John is not completely in control of what he is saying at the moment.”

Rodney sat up straighter, snapping his fingers. “That’s right! So, let’s test that theory. Hm. What to ask. Who’s your favorite of the team? I mean, I know I’m pretty important, but please…spare their feelings.”

John smiled, “Well, that’s a tough decision. Teyla is pretty awesome, but Ronon here is pretty badass. Teyla’s badass too, but Ronon’s a guy. So, I’m going with Ronon.”

Ronon grinned from ear to ear, shoving McKay playfully. “Hey, no fair! The guy with dreadlocks already has a fan base!”

John shrugged before practically jumping to his feet. He swayed violently, almost crashing to the floor.

Teyla reached out a hand to steady him, but he brushed it off saying he was fine. “I will see you all at 0500 hours. Don’t be late!”

As he staggered his way to the door and almost falling down the four steps, he heard Ronon yell out, “Yeah, don’t be late, Shep!”

They watched as he made a line towards the door that was anything, but straight. They were all grinning at the sight. None of them could wait to see how bad the hangover was the next day.

John smirked and made his way to his quarters. He opened the door and went straight to his bed. He stopped to take off his jacket, but then face-planted the mattress. He was out before his face hit the pillow.

**SGA**

0450 hours the next morning, he awoke to the sound of his alarm going off. He looked at the clock and his eyes widened. He was supposed to be in the gate room in ten minutes. He got up as quickly as he could, changed, got his boots on, grabbed his side arm, and practically ran out the door, no time for a shower.

He booked it down to the locker room to get ready. He went through his usual motions of getting his equipment, his shades, and his tact vest on, but this time in a huge rush. He was so late and he knew Ronon would give him crap for it.

His team, as well as Lorne’s team, and an extra science team that included Nikki, were all set to go. Ronon and Teyla walked over to Nikki who was spacing out, definitely hungover.

Teyla smiled at her, “We heard you had a good time last night.”

Nikki snapped out of her trance and looked up at them standing in front of her. They were both smiling at her. “Yeah, it was great. I had a good time. Wait…how did you know?”

Ronon’s smile widened. “Shep came into the mess hall last night. He was pretty drunk. Couldn’t walk in a straight line.”

She smiled, “Yeah, I don’t think I was either by the time I got back to my quarters. We drank a lot of wine…”

Teyla nodded, “Yes, we heard. He was quite entertaining to watch. It is of no surprise to me that he is late.”

Nikki looked around the gate room. Sure enough, he wasn’t there. Ronon grunted. “He’s the only one not here. How long do we wait until we send a search party?”

Nikki chuckled, “Aw, he’s only…” She looked down at her watch and grimaced, “About ten minutes late. Give him two more and then we’ll start to send the cavalry.”

Teyla smiled, “That will not be necessary.”

They both looked over towards the locker room and sure enough, John was walking out. His face was slightly pale and his eyes were a little red. He was definitely hungover.

He walked up the stairs and spotted them almost immediately. He walked over and stood next to Ronon. “And you were the one who told us not to be late.”

“Oh shut it.” Ronon smiled and slapped his hand on his friend’s back. Sheppard grimaced, but didn’t say anything more. His head was pounding as he’d forgotten to take any ibuprofen before he ran out of his quarters.

Lorne walked over to him and dropped his voice. “Are you okay, sir? You don’t look too good.”

John smirked and checked his p90 to make sure it was in working order. “I’m fine, Major, just had an…interesting night last night.” He couldn’t stop as his eyes flicked over and made contact with Nikki’s. She smiled at him, but didn’t say anything.

“Ah, I got it, sir. No worries.” He looked back at Lorne as he smiled and moved away. Nikki stepped closer to him and smiled as well.

“Man, you look as bad as I feel. It probably wasn’t the smartest to drink a bottle and a half last night.”

He laughed and turned to look at her. “No, but it was fun. Just wait until next time.”

He winked and her smile grew. “Oh, I can’t wait.”

“Good. It’ll be even better.”

They entwined their fingers for a minute, relishing in the feel of the other’s touch before letting go. John signaled to Chuck that they were all set, completely ignoring the smiles on Ronon and Teyla’s faces.

He so couldn’t wait until their next date. It was going to be a blast.


	9. Check Yes Or No

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John wants to make things official. Karaoke night happens and the gang has a little fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am SOOOOO sorry it took me, what? 3 months? Forever, I know. I was uninspired for the longest time, then it took me forever to find the perfect songs, then I kept changing my mind...I could really keep going. Oh, and there was everything else that was going on in my life. Soooo....SORRY!!!! I hope you enjoy the long chapter. ^.^

**Chapter 9**

It had been a month since John and Nikki’s first date. They had gone on two more since and were completely happy. John had been trying to figure out the best way to make it official so he could call her his girlfriend and not some girl he went on dates with. He hadn’t been in a serious relationship since his ex-wife, so he was a bit rusty.

John plopped down on the couch in the recreation room where his team were scattered. Ronon looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. “What’s up with you?”

“Just got a lot on my mind, Chewie. No big deal.”

Teyla smiled softly at him. “If it is about Nikki, then we would be more than happy to help you.”

He looked at her and sighed. “Okay, fine. It’s Nikki.”

Rodney snorted, “What, did she break up with you or something?”

John frowned at him. “No. You have to actually be dating for someone to break up with you.”

Rodney froze for a moment before looking at Sheppard. “You’re not dating? Then what is it you’ve been doing for the past month? Hooking up?”

John rolled his eyes. “No, we’ve never _hooked up_. It’s called casual dating, McKay.”

“I never thought I’d see the day when Kirk hasn’t hooked up with a girl yet…and one he’s been going on dates with. Are you feeling okay, Sheppard? You don’t have some alien bug inside your brain, do you?”

Ronon smacked Rodney upside the head. “Ow! What was that for? Don’t answer that.”

John shook his head at Rodney, wondering how it was that he had a girlfriend. Ronon seemed to be wondering the same thing. Teyla moved from her spot across the room and sat down next to John. “What is going on with you and Nikki?”

John looked over at her and thought deeply on his time with Nikki. “Things have been great. All of our dates have been…a lot of fun. I just…I want to make it official, but I don’t know how. I’m a bit rusty on the whole dating thing.”

McKay snorted again, “You’d think it’d be the opposite. You being Kirk and all.”

John rolled his eyes again. “I’m not Kirk, McKay. Do you see me going around sleeping with alien women?”

“Yes. There was Chaya. And don’t forget about Larrin. Oh, and that one chick from the planet with the time dilation field.”

“For your information, I never slept with Larrin. She kidnapped me and tried to kill me. The next time we met…well, it wasn’t exactly a happy reunion. And Teer…well, I thought you guys had abandoned me, left me on that planet. I was there for _six months_.”

Rodney smiled smugly and held up a finger. “Ah, see? You didn’t deny Chaya. I knew you slept with her. It was obvious. And as for Teer…well, we didn’t abandon you. Obviously.”

John sighed in frustration. “Who cares if I slept with her or not. Who cares if I slept with _either_ of them. I’m never going to see them again and that was years ago.”

Rodney still had the smug look on his face. “Yes, but you still slept with them which means you _do_ sleep with alien women and you _are_ Kirk. See how that works?”

John rubbed a hand through his hair. “Okay, fine. I slept with _two_ aliens. My time of sleeping with alien women is over though. I have Nikki.”

The grin on Rodney’s face disappeared and was replaced with a serious look. “Are…are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

John’s brow came together and he stared at Rodney. “What are you talking about?”

“Are you…Are you saying this is serious? Like-Like _really_ serious? Like _marriage_ serious? Because I didn’t think it was going _that_ fast! I mean you just said yourself you haven’t even slept together, so are you sure you wanna go _that_ fast-?”

“McKay! It’s serious, but not _that_ serious! I’m not thinking about marriage. That…that…”

John wasn’t sure how to continue his sentence. The idea of getting married again so soon kind of freaked him out. Sure, he could see himself settling down again and getting married, raising a couple of kids, but there was no way it was happening any time soon.

Teyla rested her hand on John’s arm to ground him. “John, it is okay. Rodney, I think you are getting ahead of yourself. John is not quite at that stage to be even considering a marriage proposal. How about we bring the conversation back and talk about how to make it official, shall we?”

Ronon grunted, slightly amused at watching Rodney and John go at it. John nodded and McKay frowned, staring down at his data pad.

“John, do you have any ideas about how you plan on making it official with her?”

He shook his head and rested it on the back of the couch. “Nope.”

Teyla smiled kindly at him. “Why don’t you bring her to the event tonight. I hear it is supposed to be fun. Maybe if the two of you hang out with us, you won’t be so nervous and then afterwards you can take her somewhere private and ask her?”

John lifted his head and looked at her. “That’s a really good idea, Teyla. But…remind me again…what is the event tonight?”

Her smile widened. “It’s karaoke night.”

John groaned, resting his head back on the cushion and closing his eyes. “Fine, I’ll go, but I am not getting up on stage. That’s the deal breaker.”

Teyla chuckled, “That is fine, John, as long as you enjoy yourself and not be too nervous. The three of us will be there as will Katie Brown and Lorne.”

Ronon nodded, “Yeah, and…uh…my date.”

They all looked over at him confused. None of them had known he’d had a date. The last time John had talked to him about seeing someone Ronon had said he wasn’t ready yet.

A small smile started to spread across John’s lips. “You have a date? Who is it?”

Ronon shifted uncomfortably. “Um…a woman. You guys know her, but um…I’ll let it be a surprise.”

John and Teyla shared a quick look before looking back at him with equally matching smiles on their faces. They were both really happy for their friend. It was about time for him to get back out there and have some fun.

“Okay. Well, I’m going to go talk to Nikki about tonight. I’ll see you guys then.” John stood up from the couch and made his way out of the recreation room. It wasn’t too far of a walk to her lab, only about ten minutes. When he got there, she was the only one there. He walked up behind her quietly and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind. She jumped, startled. She had been concentrating on what she’d been working on and hadn’t heard him walk in.

She turned around in his arms and smiled up at him. “You know, I didn’t think I’d be seeing you again until supper. What do I get the pleasure of this visit?”

He smiled at her and kissed her softly on the lips. “I was just talking to the team. They invited us to go to the event tonight with them. So, I figured…tonight we get some supper and then join up with them for the event. Then…I don’t know. Maybe we can do something afterwards.”

Her smile brightened. “You know, I was going to ask if you wanted to go tonight. I like this idea much better. I don’t think the five of us have hung out together outside of meals in a while. It’ll be fun.”

John nodded, “I agree. And it’ll also be Katie Brown, Lorne, and whoever Ronon’s date is. He wouldn’t tell us. He said we know her, but it’s a surprise.”

Nikki nodded, wondering who it could be. “Well, whoever it is, I’m guessing she’s not a scientist. I can’t see Ronon going for a scientist.”

John nodded, “Yeah, neither can I. Maybe she’s military. I know he likes women who can kick some ass.”

Nikki smiled, “Well, whoever she is…I’m happy for him. How long has it been since he’s been with anyone?”

“Um…about ten years? He lost someone pretty special on Sateda. It really took a toll on him. I’m just glad he’s getting back out there. He’s the only one of us who doesn’t have anyone special, so let’s hope it works out.”

Nikki grinned at his words and nodded. “I’m sure it will. And if she hurts him, I’ll kick some ass for him. I’m sure Teyla and I could take her like we did Melissa.”

John chuckled, remembering when Nikki and Teyla had taken his ex-girlfriend down when she’d gone completely psycho on him. “I’m sure you could considering there’s hardly anyone on this base whose ass you can’t kick. The same goes for Teyla. Together you’re like an unstoppable force of nature. Just remind me never to get on your bad side. Either of you.”

Nikki laughed, “Duly noted. So, question. Will you be participating in this event or are you merely going to watch and laugh at other’s pain?”

John smiled, “I’ll be going to watch and laugh at their pain. Could you really see me getting up in front of half the city and singing…?”

Nikki pretended to think about it for a moment, making John’s eyebrow raise. “Not really. Unless we get a few beers in you. And maybe some of that Ruus wine the Athosians make. I’m sure you’d be up for just about anything then!”

John rolled his eyes. “Yeah, probably, but let’s not make a fool out of me in front of half the city. I’m supposed to be respected, looked up to…authoritative…”

Nikki smiled. “Oh yes, because racing toy cars with Rodney down on the east pier is completely authoritative.”

“It is! And besides…no one sees us besides you, Ronon, and Teyla. I’m allowed to goof off with you guys.”

Nikki chuckled. “Yes, you are. Well, I need to get back to my project and if I remember correctly you have a meeting with Elizabeth in five minutes.”

John looked down at his watch and his eyes widened slightly. “Yeah, I’m going to be late.” He turned back to her and smiled. “I’ll pick you up at seventeen hundred hours for supper, how does that sound?”

Nikki’s smile grew. “I think it sounds wonderful.”

“Great! I’ll see you then.” He leaned down and pressed his lips to her. He really didn’t want to pull away so he stayed there for a few long seconds, reveling in the feel of her lips on his, before reluctantly pulling back.

He pulled away from her and walked out of her lab, smiling the entire way.

**SGA**

John and Nikki walked through the room that was set up as the karaoke room for the night. They had easily spotted Teyla, Evan, Rodney, and Katie waiting for them across the room. When they made their way through the array of tables and got to their group, they sat down next to each other, holding hands underneath the table.

Teyla smiled as they sat down. “I am glad the two of you were able to join us.”

Nikki smiled at Teyla. “Me too! I was hoping to convince John into coming to this anyways. So you really helped me out there!”

Teyla’s smile widened. “I am sure John would have come anyway if you would have asked him.”

John smiled at Nikki and squeezed her hand gently, silently telling her that Teyla was right. Nikki smiled at him before glancing around the room. “I thought Ronon was coming with a date.”

Teyla nodded, “It seems they are running late. I hope they get here soon.”

John looked over towards the door and his eyes widened. “I can’t believe it. I did not see that coming.”

Their whole table looked over at him confused. Nikki frowned. “John, what are you talking about?”

He tilted his head towards the door where Ronon was making his way towards them with his date. The whole group sat there, stunned. None of them had seen it coming. When they arrived at the table, Ronon’s brow furrowed. “What?”

John was the first one to break out of his shock. “Nothing! Just surprised is all. It’s nice to see you, Dr. Keller.”

Dr. Keller smiled at him, “Please, call me Jennifer. I’m off-duty and here to have some fun.” She smiled up at Ronon.

Teyla’s smile widened. “It is good to see you, Jennifer. Please forgive us. We were not aware of who Ronon’s date would be. Please, join us.”

They took their seats around at the table. Immediately, Katie jumped into a conversation with Jennifer. John caught a couple of words and figured it was about the upcoming events that had already been scheduled. Ronon leaned forward and started talking to Evan about some of the training sessions they’d been having with the newer personnel. Nikki and Teyla were setting up a time to spar soon and Rodney was typing away at his data pad like usual. John started drumming his fingers on his thigh nervously. His mind was drawn to his plan of asking Nikki to be his girlfriend. He was becoming more nervous by the minute.

He tried snapping himself out of it, getting it off of his mind for a while, but it wasn’t working too well. The only thing there was to do really was glance around the room, see who all was showing up for the event. It was a pretty good turnout. A good portion of the city had shown up. Of course, there was a good chunk of people on-duty or off-world who were unable to attend.

He made a mental note not to drink too much and make a fool out of himself up on stage. He really didn’t want to know how well that would turn out. Suddenly he felt eyes on him and he turned back to the table to see Teyla and Nikki watching him.

“What?”

Nikki shook her head, “You kind of spaced out there. Teyla asked you when the next mission will be.”

John sat forward, setting his mind to one topic and completely pushing his nervousness to the back of his mind. “I talked to Elizabeth earlier about that. Our next mission will be the day after tomorrow. Tomorrow our team has the whole day off as does Lorne’s.”

At the mention of his name, Evan looked over. “What about me, sir?”

John chuckled softly. “It’s not sir when we’re off-duty, remember?”

Evan grimaced, “Sorry about that. Force of habit.”

John smirked, “Our teams have the whole day off tomorrow. Weir stamp of approval and everything. If there’s any trouble, Stackhouse’s team will be called in. Anything big…then it’s us, but let’s just hope the galaxy will be in our favor this time.”

Evan snorted, “Yeah, because every time we want something to go our way it actually does. When was the last time something actually worked out that way?”

John paused for a moment, racking his mind. “I think back on M54-783. You know…when we really wanted to get out of there alive. I’m surprised there weren’t any casualties, to be honest.”

Rodney jumped into the conversion, his ears having perked up. “Actually, Sheppard, there was. Kavanagh got stung by that insect thing. He couldn’t talk for days. Though, that was more of a blessing than anything.”

John’s smirk deepened. “Like I said, there were no casualties.”

Rodney tilted his head in agreement. Evan chuckled, “Yeah, it’s always a good thing when Kavanagh can’t talk. Didn’t he transfer back to Earth?”

John nodded, sitting back in his chair. “Yep. I was there to see him off, just to make sure he actually left. Knowing him though, he’ll be back.”

Nikki grimaced, “I wish the SGC would find him a nice, solitary position somewhere. That way he’s not bothering anyone when he opens his mouth. Although…he knows better than to open his mouth around me now.”

John sat up straighter, a smile coming to his lips. “You decked him, didn’t you?”

A proud smile shone on her face. “Yes, I did. And it felt great. He was rambling on about how my calculations were off about something and how I was going to end up blowing up the city. Then he started in about how ‘southern folk don’t know their up’s from their down’s let alone their equations from their expressions’. He was on the ground about five seconds later.”

Rodney nodded, “I went back over his work after he ran off to the infirmary. His calculations were the ones that would blow up the city. If he had inputted them to use, he would have over taxed the zed-pm and vaporized us. Not that Nikki’s calculations were much better, but-.”

Nikki shook her head, “We’ve already had this discussion about a hundred times. How about we just focus on the part where I decked him and made him cry like a baby.”

A grin appeared on Evan’s face. “You made him cry?”

She nodded, “Yep! I had a few choice words for him after he hit the ground. Let’s just say he’ll never scrutinize us ‘southern folk’ around me again.”

Rodney frowned. “I do have to admit, although rather reluctantly, that he _did_ kind of save our lives one time…”

One of John’s eyebrows rose. “Really? And when was this because I must have missed it.”

McKay grimaced. “Actually...you did miss it. You were kind of…dead at the time.”

John’s brow came together and his lips parted in confusion. “McKay, what are you talking about?”

“You know…that time when you, Ford, Teyla, and I were stuck in the back of the jumper when it got stuck in the wormhole. Markham and Stackhouse were in the front compartment and completely dematerialized. You had that alien bug on your neck and Ford had to zap you to get it off. Effectively killing you…but we got you back, didn’t we? And and and Kavanagh was the one who suggested that we blow the rear hatch when we were down to one minute before the gate shut down, killing all of us. Really, Ford was the one who actually blew the hatch, but it was Kavanagh’s idea.”

John narrowed his eyes at Rodney. “I thought we agreed we were never going to talk about that again.”

“I made no such agreement. But, hey! At least we got you back!”

Nikki’s brow furrowed, “Wait, you had an alien bug attached to your neck and they had to kill you to get it off of you?”

John sighed, “Yeah. It’s called an iratus bug, ancestor to the Wraith. It feeds on its victims, sucking the life out of you, but different from how the Wraith do it. Pain then paralysis. Also kind of like a leech. Salt and water really pisses the bastards off. Trust me, we found that out the hard way.”

Nikki nodded slowly, “Okay, then how did they get it off?”

John winced. “I got the idea that if its victim were dead…it would stop feeding. Turned out to be quite accurate. I had Ford zap me with the defibrillator. Later on, I was told that Teyla pried the thing from my neck. When they zapped me again to try to get my heart beating again, it didn’t work. Teyla took me through the event horizon, as good as a deep freeze. When we got back to Atlantis, Carson brought me back.”

Teyla nodded, “It took some time. He would not respond for several minutes. We had recently met, but it was not an enjoyable experience. Not one I would like to ever repeat.” She gave John a look and John held his hands in the air.

“Hey! Not my fault the thing was attached to me!”

Rodney snorted, “Well, actually it was. You were the one who ran into it.”

“Only because I was running from the Wraith and trying to save your asses! You got back to the jumper alive and uninjured, didn’t you?”

Rodney grimaced. “I guess.”

John smirked, “There we go. Now, can we stop talking about it? And never talk about it again?”

Nikki rested her hand on John’s leg and squeezed reassuringly, smiling softly. He smiled at her, something inside of him stirring at the contact.

A voice came over the speakers and everyone looked up to see one of the event coordinators standing up on stage. “Hello, everyone! It’s nice to see such a big turn-out. It’s time for us to get started with karaoke night. If you haven’t done so already, there is a sign-up sheet over here on the left side of the stage for anyone who wants to participate. The DJ has a book of songs for you to choose from. Simply write your name and what song you’ll be doing. We’ll call you up when it’s your turn. Simple, right? Okay! Let the fun begin! We’re starting off our show with the lovely Ashton Lexis. She will be singing Hey Jude by the Beatles.”

The crowd applauded as the scientist John had never met got up on stage. She seemed nervous and not quite sure if going first was the right move. The music started and her eyes darted to the little screen off to her right that displayed the words. As the music drifted throughout the room, her nerves seemed to calm slightly. Her voice flowed over the words as if she’d been singing them her whole life.

John nodded approvingly. “She’s pretty good.”

Nikki nodded, “She’s really nice. I got to work with her once on a project a few months back. She would hum under her breath when she was concentrating. When I found out she’d be singing tonight, I got excited.”

Rodney put away his data pad and took hold of Katie’s hand. He smiled at her softly before turning back to the stage. Jennifer was swaying the slightest bit the music, remembering when she would sing this song in the car or when her brain couldn’t handle any more studying.

Ronon was watching Jennifer out of the corner of his eye, watching her sway the slightest bit to the music. He could tell she was enjoying herself and he was glad he’d worked up the courage to ask her. He’d never heard the song, but it wasn’t bad.

Nikki saw John tapping his fingers on his thigh to the beat of the music. He was bobbing his head to the tempo, but it was barely noticeable. If she hadn’t been watching him, she doubted she would have noticed. She couldn’t resist the small smile that came to her lips as she watched him.

She leaned towards him and spoke softly by his ear so that only he could hear her. “I didn’t know you were a Beatles fan.”

He smiled softly, a memory floating to the surface. “Yeah. My mom would sing this to me when I was a kid. She’d sing it every night instead of a lullaby.”

Nikki’s smile grew. She knew how much he missed his mom even though she’d been gone since he was a kid. She’d been a big part of John’s life while she was alive. Nikki scooted closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder. His smile widened and he rested his head on top of hers, his fingers still tapping along with the music.

Teyla looked over and smiled when she saw Nikki and John. She was really happy for John. It was obvious that the two were happy together and made a great couple.

Once the song was over and everyone had cheered for the young scientist, drinks were ordered. John decided he needed a beer if he was going to get through the night. With the singing and his nerves, alcohol could only help him. The first song was really good, but he was worried about what was to come. Everyone signed up couldn’t be that great. In the words of McKay, it was a statistical improbability.

They sat through several different songs. They were an hour into the event with most of the crowd having disappeared already. It was down to about a third its original size. There had been a lot of people who were just so horrible, it hurt to listen to them. Of course, John didn’t say that out loud. He kept his judgment to himself. The event was for everyone to have fun. If they had fun going up there and making fools of themselves, then that’s all that mattered in John’s eyes. He enjoyed watching his people have fun. The people whose safety was his responsibility twenty-four hours, every day of the week for as long as he was in command.

Nikki had conned Jennifer and Katie to go up to the stage with her and sing. John had never heard her sing before, so he was interested in hearing her for the first time. He knew that even if she wasn’t that good, it wouldn’t matter to him. There was so much more to her than just a singing voice.

Nikki walked up to the DJ and said something to him. He nodded, searching his laptop for a moment, and nodded again. She smiled and moved onto the stage where Jennifer and Katie already were. The music started playing a moment later. John didn’t recognize the tune but he could tell is was a country song. All three of them started the song together. Their voices combining and flowing together beautifully.

 _I'm hell on heels_  
Say what you will  
I've done made the devil a deal

Nikki smiled and sang the next line alone.

_He made me pretty._

Jennifer glanced in Ronon’s direction, nervous. Her voice rang through each word.

_He made me smart._

Then Katie’s voice rolled over the lyrics as if she’d sang them a million times before.

_And I’m going to break me a million hearts._

All three of their voices joined together again as they delivered the next line.

_I'm hell on heels, baby I'm comin' for you_

There was a brief pause before Nikki’s voice carried out through the speakers and John was mesmerized. She looked in his direction and smiled, seeing how struck he was.

 _This diamond ring on my hand_  
Is the only good thing that came from that man  
Got a GTO from one named Joe  
And a big piece of land down in Mexico  
I'm hell on heels, baby I'm comin' for you

There was another brief pause before Jennifer’s voice rang out. John saw Ronon sit forward and his eyes widen from the corner of his eye.

 _I got a pink guitar, a Lincoln Town Car_  
From ol' what's his name I met at a bar  
Got a high-rise flat in Hollywood  
From a married man who wasn't up to no good  
I'm hell on heels, baby I'm comin' for you

After another brief pause, Katie’s voice was sliding over the lyrics. It was Rodney’s turn to be amazed. His jaw dropped at the sound of her voice and John resisted the urge to reach over and shut it for him.

 _Then there's Jim, I almost forgot_  
I ran him off, but I took the yacht  
Poor ol' Billy, bless his heart  
I'm still using his credit card  
I'm hell on heels, Sugar Daddy I'm comin' for you

Their voices continued to glide beautifully over the lyrics, dumbfounding each of their men. As each of their parts came up, they sang them solo before harmonizing.

 _I'm hell on heels, say what you will_  
I've done made the devil a deal  
He made me pretty  
He made me smart  
And I'm gonna break me a million hearts  
I'm hell on heels baby I'm comin' for you

Their voices stopped as the music continued and flowed around them. The instrumentals alone were enough to root them to their chairs. When their voices flowed once more, it was as if they were able to reach out and capture every one of their souls.

 _I'm hell on heels, say what you will_  
I've done made the devil a deal  
He made me pretty  
He made me smart  
I'm gonna break me a million hearts  
I'm hell on heels, Sugar Daddy I'm comin' for you!

As the last note rang through the room, everyone snapped out of their trance. A mass of cheering erupted throughout the room and the smiles on Nikki, Katie, and Jennifer’s faces were as bright as John had ever seen them. They stepped off the stage and walked back to their table, sitting back down beside their dates.

John turned to Nikki still in awe. “Wow, that was…incredible. I had no idea you had such a beautiful voice.”

Nikki’s eyes brightened as much as her smile as she looked at John. “Thank you, John. It’s been a while, so I’m pretty rusty.”

“Rusty? You call that rusty? Damn, I can’t wait to hear what it sounds like when you’ve had practice.”

A faint blush crept up onto her cheeks at the compliment. Teyla smiled at the three women. “That truly was an amazing performance.”

Jennifer blushed. “Thank you, Teyla. I’ve never done anything like that before. That was exhilarating!”

Katie nodded, “I agree! That was a lot of fun!”

John couldn’t look away from Nikki. He felt as if he were still in a trance. She looked back at him and smiled softly. “You aren’t the only one with a hidden talent.”

He chuckled, finally able to snap out of it. “It’s not as hidden as it used to be.”

Her smile widened, remembering listening as his voice filled the recreational room. She really wanted to hear it again, but wasn’t sure how. She knew he wasn’t going to go up on stage, so she’d have to figure out another way.

About half an hour later, John had made it through quite a few beers and had a good buzz going when the announcer walked back up on stage and said something he had not been expecting. “Next up we have someone I’m sure most of you will be surprised to see up here. I know I am! Colonel Sheppard! It’s your turn.”

John choked on his beer, not believing his ears. He heard someone chuckle and looked over at Rodney. He glared. “You signed me up, didn’t you?”

Rodney’s eyes widened, “Um…no. No, of course not! You said you weren’t going to! So, why would I? I mean-.”

“McKay…”

Rodney huffed, “Fine! I did it! But only to get you to loosen up! I know you’re nervous, so I figured it’d get you to loosen up! And I know you can sing because when we’re on away missions and you’re in a good mood, you sing under your breath. You don’t think we hear you, but we do!”

John tilted his head slightly, “I do?”

Rodney threw his hands into the air and rolled his eyes dramatically. “He doesn’t even…Yes! You do! It’s annoyingly cheery. So, get up there already! And try not to make our ears bleed, would you?”

John bit his lower lip, not wanting to go up there at all. Nikki smiled, “Come on, I’ll go up there with you and we can sing one together.”

John couldn’t help the smile that formed on his lips. It was much better than going up there alone, but on the other hand it was more nerve-wracking because the woman he was trying to impress would be singing right next to him, making his heart skip beats. He’d probably stutter or his voice would break knowing his luck. There was no getting out of it now. If he backed out, he would look like a coward in front of the girl he was planning on asking to be his girlfriend. That definitely wasn’t an option for him.

He nodded reluctantly. “Okay. That’s the only way I’m going up there.”

She jumped to her feet, grabbed his hand, and pulled him towards the stage. He threw a look over his shoulder at Teyla and saw her smiling encouragingly at him, silently telling him it would be okay.

He made his way slowly up to the stage, anxiety and nerves settling into his stomach. The last time he sang in front of people, it hadn’t gone very well. His dad had charged into the room and they’d gotten into a huge fight about it. He hadn’t sang in front of anyone since. Well, not knowingly of course. He hadn’t known Nikki had been in the doorway when he’d sang a song he’d written, nor had he known he sang under his breath on missions.

She walked over to the DJ and spoke to him the way she had the first time she went up on stage. The DJ nodded at her and started typing at his laptop as she walked back over to John. She smiled up at him. “We’re all set.”

John nodded, “Okay, that doesn’t exactly tell me what we’ll be singing though.”

Her smile widened. “Oh, I think you’ll recognize it when it comes on.”

His brow scrunched together and he looked at her quizzically, wondering what McKay had just gotten him into. It was only another moment before the music started and he immediately recognized it. She smiled as she saw the recognition show in his eyes and stepped up to the mic, ready for the words to start. John followed her lead, knowing his part was up first. He took a deep breath and pretended there was no one watching them. He pretended they were the only two in the room, singing without an audience. When the time came, he opened his mouth and let the words flow gracefully from his lips, trying his hardest not to let his voice crack.

 _Bet your window's rolled down and your hair's pulled back_  
And I bet you got no idea you're going way too fast  
You're trying not to think about what went wrong  
Trying not to stop 'til you get where you goin'  
You're trying to stay awake so I bet you turn on the radio  
And the song goes

He smiled when he heard Nikki’s voice ring through the speakers, loving every second of it.

_I can't live without you, I can't live without you, baby  
I can't live without you, I can't live without you, baby, baby_

As soon as her voice stopped, he let his go. He gave it everything he had, projecting it throughout the room. He couldn’t help but smile at the feeling. It’d been too long.

 _The highway won't hold you tonight_  
The highway don't know you're alive  
The highway don't care if you're all alone  
But I do, I do.  
The highway won't dry your tears  
The highway don't need you here  
The highway don't care if you're coming home  
But I do, I do.

Their voices tangled together, creating a harmony that John absolutely loved. He’d never sang a duet with someone before and he loved it.

 _I bet you got a dead cell phone in your shotgun seat_  
Yeah, I bet you're bending God's ear talking 'bout me.  
You're trying not to let the first tear fall out  
Trying not to think about turning around  
You're trying not to get lost in the sound

He finished off the rest of the verse himself, smiling over at Nikki.

_but that song is always on  
So you sing along_

Her part came again and he watched her face, watched how much it thrilled her to be up there singing.

_I can't live without you, I can't live without you, baby  
I can't live without I can't live without you baby, oh baby_

John let his voice ring through the speakers again, sending it echoing off every wall. His heart was pounding at the thrill, it’d been years. As he sang the next verse alone, he watched Nikki.

 _The highway won't hold you tonight_  
The highway don't know you're alive  
The highway don't care if you're all alone  
But I do, I do.  
The highway won't dry your tears  
The highway don't need you here  
The highway don't care if you're coming home  
But I do, I do.

There was an instrumental break between the verses this time and they took the break to catch their breath and smile at each other, both loving the thrill it gave them. Of course, the buzz both of them had going thanks to the beer helped a bit. The break ended and Nikki’s part came.

_I can't live without you, I can't live without you, baby  
I can't live without I can't live without you, baby, oh baby_

His voice floated over the music and he nodded his head slightly to the beat of it.

 _The highway don't care_  
The highway don't care  
The highway don't care  
But I do, I do.

As Nikki sang her part over and over and over and over again times, he sang his. Their voices flowing around each other, mingling with each other.

 _I can't live without you, I can't live without you, baby_  
I can't live without I can't live without you, baby, oh baby  
(The highway don't care  
The highway don't care  
The highway don't care  
But I do, I do)

There was another break in the lyrics, the song rounding out. Right as the music started to die out, Nikki’s voice rang over the last few words.

_I can't live without you, I can't live without you, baby_

As the music finally ended, Nikki and John looked at each other and smiled, the audience cheering in the background. After a moment, they finally came off their cloud and descended the stairs, heading back to their seats with their fingers intertwined together. Their group complimented them, told them how great they were.

Evan smiled at John. “I didn’t know you could sing, Sheppard.”

John chuckled, “Hidden talent, I guess.”

Teyla smiled, “Not so hidden anymore. The whole city will hear about it shortly I am sure.”

John nodded, “Yeah, you’re right. My secret’s out.”

Nikki smiled and kissed him on the cheek. “It’s okay. You were amazing. They’ll have nothing to say, but good things.”

John blushed and looked away, not sure what to say. Rodney stared at him dumbfounded. “Well…that didn’t suck.”

John rolled his eyes. “Thanks, McKay. Maybe I should go sign _you_ up. See how you do.”

Rodney’s eyes widened and he threw his hands into the air, shaking his head. “No, no, no, no, no! That won’t be necessary.”

John chuckled and picked up his beer, taking a big swig from it. Nikki rested her hand just above his knee. He looked over at her as he swallowed his beer and saw her smile. He gave her one in return before leaning over and pressing a soft kiss to her cheek, making her blush.

He pulled back and smiled at her. He faintly heard the music starting to some pop song he recognized. He glanced down at his watch and decided it was now or never. When he looked back up at her, she had a question in her eyes. “What do you say we get out of here? I have something else planned.”

She tilted her head slightly to the side, curious. “Okay. Are you going to tell me what it is?”

His smile widened. “Now where would the fun be in that?”

He turned his attention towards Teyla since the rest of the table were either engaged in conversation or listening to whoever was on stage singing. “We’re going to get out of here. We’ll see you tomorrow?”

Teyla smiled softly at him, knowing that what happened next would either put him in a very good mood tomorrow or a very bad one. She was leaning more towards good mood considering the way the two acted around each other. “Yes. You two have a lovely evening. I’ll be sure to fill you in if anything…interesting happens in your absence.”

John chuckled. “Sounds like a plan. Good night.”

She nodded at both of them, telling them good night. She watched them walk away, an arm around each other. Evan looked over as they left the table and leaned closer to her. “They left already?”

Teyla nodded, “John has plans for them tonight.”

Evan’s eyebrows rose. “What kind of plans?”

“He is going to ask her to be his girlfriend.”

His eyes widened and he looked over as John and Nikki reached the door and left. “Wow! We all know what the answer will be of course. You know, now that you say that…that explains why he’s been so nervous all night.”

Teyla nodded, “Yes. He has been very nervous about it. I do not know exactly what he has planned, but…I’m sure she will love it.”

**SGA**

John smiled to himself, the alcohol in his system bringing his nerves way down for the time being.

“So, where is it that you’re taking me?”

“During one of the latest searches of the city, I found a room that overlooks the city. It has a great view. I think you’ll like it.”

Nikki nodded, trying to visualize the room. “And what will we be doing when we get there?”

John looked down at her. “You’ll find out when we get there.”

Nikki snorted. “You are full of mysteries, John Sheppard.”

“You have no idea.”

They continued to talk as they wandered through the city, venturing towards the outskirts where the room lay waiting for them. Finally they reached a closed door and John opened it with his mind, using his gene to unlock the code he’d placed on the door so no one would be there when they arrived. They walked inside and Nikki gasped when she saw the view.

The room was large and empty save for a table off to the side. One wall was completely glass and it had a breathtaking view of the city with the ocean behind it. She walked towards it, taking in everything.

“John, this…this is amazing.”

He smiled at her as she moved across the room to stand in front of the window overlooking the city. She stared in awe at the twinkling lights that covered the city they lived in. “I have never seen anything as beautiful as this.”

She faintly heard music start in the background and then a moment later, John was by her side. “I have.”

She looked up to find him staring at her much like she’d been staring at the city. Her smile widened and she couldn’t help but wonder how she’d gotten so lucky.

He held out his hand and tilted his head slightly. “Dance with me?”

She couldn’t find the right words so she simply nodded, thrilled. He pulled her closer, wrapping an arm around his waist and pulling her into his chest. His right hand captured her left and their fingers entwined. He rested their hands on his shoulder as she rested her hand and her head on his chest.

“This is the best date ever, John. Thank you.”

John kissed the top of her head before resting his cheek against it. “It’s not over yet.”

Suddenly recognition came to her and she realized what song was playing. Her brow scrunched together slightly, a small smile coming to her lips. She was just about to ask why he’d played that song when he started singing softly into her ear while they swayed to the music.

 _"Do you love me, do you wanna be my friend?_  
And if you do  
Well then don't be afraid to take me by the hand  
If you want to  
I think this is how love goes, check yes or no"

The smile that erupted onto Nikki’s face outshone any kind of smile she’d given in a very long time. Right there in that moment she was the happiest she had ever been. She knew how lucky she was and she didn’t take it for granted. She knew firsthand what heartache and loneliness felt like it and right there in that moment with John, she knew she’d never feel that way again.

 _Now we're grown up and she's my wife_  
Still like two kids with stars in our eyes  
Ain't much changed, I still chase Emmylou  
Up and down the hall, around the bed in our room

 _Last night I took her out in a white limousine_  
Twenty years together, she still gets to me  
Can't believe it's been that long ago  
When we got started with just a little note

John tightened his grip around her waist and tilted his head just right so he was looking down at her face. She felt his movement and looked up into his eyes, her smile never leaving her face. She wished more than anything she could pause this moment and keep it with her forever, always be able to feel the happiness that was erupting from both of them.

John’s smile was in his eyes rather than on his face. She saw a question in his eyes and suddenly understood why he’d been nervous for a good portion of the day.

 _"Do you love me, do you wanna be my friend?_  
And if you do  
Well then don't be afraid to take me by the hand  
If you want to  
I think this is how love goes, check yes or no"

Nikki reached up and met her lips with his. They let the music echo off the walls in the background, getting lost in each other rather than the lyrics. She knew what his question was and she knew the answer she was going to give him.

When she finally pulled away from him, she stared up into his hazel eyes and whispered, “I check yes.”

The smile that erupted onto John’s face rivaled her own. Their fingers untwined as John wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her in even tighter against his body. Her arms wrapped around his neck as their lips collided.

When they broke apart several minutes later, neither could stop smiling. “Are there more plans of yours or is my turn to decide what happens next?”

John’s smile turned into a smirk. “It’s all you.”

Nikki nodded, “Well, in that case, I vote we turn off the music and get out of here.”

He quirked his head to the side a little. “And where is it we’re going?”

She threw him a smirk of her own. “Back to my quarters.”

His smirk intensified. “What will we be doing?”

“Oh, you’ll find out when we get there.”

**SGA**

John and Nikki sat down with their trays, their group already there. Rodney looked up as the couple sat down and his eyes widened slightly. “Sheppard! You…you’re…”

John looked up at him, an eyebrow raised. “I’m what, McKay?”

“You’re doing the-.” A foot connected with Rodney’s shin, causing him to yelp in pain. “Nothing! Nothing. I mean you’re not doing anything. You’re sitting. That’s what you’re doing. And you’re eating. Eating is good.”

John’s eyes narrowed. “Spit out, McKay.”

Rodney looked nervously around the table, silently begging for help in the situation. Each one of them looked away, letting him dig himself out of that hole.

Rodney shifted uncomfortably under John’s scrutiny. “It’s just that, uh…you’re…you know…”

John leaned forward the slightest bit. “I’m what?”

Rodney looked up, finally meeting the Colonel’s eye. “You’re doing the walk of shame.”

John blushed slightly as Nikki almost choked on her coffee. Rodney was about to say something, but then he noticed the smile that was slowly sliding onto his friend’s face. “Why are you smiling?”

John leaned back in his seat and wrapped an arm around the back of Nikki’s chair, making her look over at him and watch him. John shook his head. “I’m happy, McKay. That’s what happy people do. You should try it sometime.”

Rodney rolled his eyes. “And what do you have to be happy about, hm? Oh God, never mind. Please for the love of God do not answer that.”

John rolled his eyes. “You wanna know why I’m in a good mood?” He looked over at Nikki, a smile coming to his face. “She checked yes.”

John faintly heard Rodney ask, “What does that even mean?”

He was too busy staring into Nikki’s eyes to respond to him, figuring that eventually he’d catch on.

“Oh.”

There it was. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay. So. The songs in this chapter were Hell On Heels by the Pistol Annies, Highway Don't Care by Tim McGraw, Taylor Swift, and Keith Urban, and Check Yes or No by George Strait. I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Also, sneak peak of the next chapter? It will be, as requested, what the team does on their day off. And as you read in this chapter, they have the day off at the end of the chapter. So. It will be basically continuing on from there. Just...not EXACTLY there...Anywho.....Thanks for reading!


	10. Friday-Part One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happens when the team finally gets a day off? Remember the last time they got a day off? Hm, let's hope it's better than that fateful Sunday!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am soooo sorry for not posting in forever and a day. Again. I have had so much going on. I was in a car accident, I've been working even more, I decided to go back to school so I've been applying for colleges, transfering stuff, ect ect ect...Life has been one ball of crazy lately! Also. This is part ONE of a two part chapter. Or Three part...just depends on what happens. I wasn't planning on taking this chapter in this direction at ALL...but you know...you get ideas when you're writing and you just have to go with the flow! Hope you enjoy!

**Chapter 10**

John sipped his coffee and thought about what he wanted to do on his day off. He looked around at his friends and wondered what they had planned for the day. They were all sitting around talking while they finished their breakfast. Nikki looked over at him and raised an eyebrow. “What are you thinking so hard about?”

He looked up at her. “Just trying to figure out what I’m going to do with my day off. They’re very rare.”

Nikki nodded, smiling. “Yes they are. I’d take advantage of it if I were you. Maybe you could go to the Mainland for a while. I’m sure you could find something to do there.”

John nodded, “You know, that’s a really good idea.” He sat up and looked over at Ronon.

“Hey, Chewy, got any plans for today?”

Ronon looked up at him and shook his head. “Nope. Why, what’s up?”

A smile came to John’s face. “How would you like to go surfing? This time of year there are awesome breakers out on the west tip of the Mainland.”

A huge smile came to Ronon’s face. “We haven’t gone surfing in a long time. I’m in.”

John nodded, “Awesome! Anyone else care to join us?”

Evan looked up from his coffee. “We could get a game of football going, teach some of the Athosians how to play. I haven’t played in years. I haven’t surfed in years either.”

“Yeah, I haven’t played probably since college.”

Rodney looked up at John. “Didn’t you say you were on some kind of team?”

John nodded, “Yeah, my college football team.”

Nikki sat forward. “You were on a college football team?”

He looked at her and nodded, brushing it off easily. “Yeah, for a couple of years at Stanford.”

“I didn’t know that. We’ll have to play sometime.”

His eyebrows rose. “You can play football?”

She snorted. “Of course I can play football, are you kidding? I grew up in Texas with an older brother and a father who practically worshipped the sport. I would have been shunned from the family if I hadn’t learned to play.”

His smile grew. “You’re right, we’ll have to play sometime. Maybe next time we both have the day off we can get a group together and go over to the Mainland for a game or two.”

She nodded, “Sounds like a plan to me. Not that it will be happening any time soon…”

He shrugged, tucking the piece of information to the back of his mind to remember when they both had the day off. He looked over at Teyla. “What about you, Teyla? Care to join us? Go spend some time with your people?”

She nodded, a small smile playing at her lips as she sipped her tea. “I had already planned on going to the Mainland today. I was hoping to find someone to fly me.”

John smiled. “Well, look no further. You have found your pilot.”

Her smile grew and she tipped her head forward. “Thank you, John.”

“No problem.” He turned his attention over to Rodney. “Okay, McKay. You’re the only one left besides the rest of Lorne’s team. You in or out?”

He looked up from his breakfast, cereal dripping from his mouth. “Definitely-.”

“In, okay. I’ll get it cleared with Elizabeth and we leave in an hour. Evan, you should invite your team. They’re more than welcome to come.”

He nodded, lifting his hand to his headset to relay the invitation to his team. John turned towards Nikki and smiled. “Well, I’m off to see Elizabeth. I don’t know how long we’ll be gone, probably until late. Then we leave first thing in the morning…”

She nodded, “I’m sure we’ll manage to run into each other eventually.” Her lips pulled into a smile, making sure not to make him suspicious of anything. She already knew when they would be seeing each other next, but she couldn’t let him find out yet.

His smile softened and he leaned closer to her, planting a gently, but quick kiss on her lips before standing up and walking away from the group, taking his tray with him. He deposited his tray on his way out the door and was on his way to Elizabeth’s office. It didn’t take long for him to get there, no one having stopped him on his journey for once.

He walked into her office and sat down in one of the chairs. She looked up, surprised, and smiled at him. “Good morning, John. What can I do for you?”

“Well…since it’s my day off…I was wondering if it’d be alright with you if my team and Lorne’s take a jumper over to the Mainland for the day, get out of the city, go surfing, play some football, that sort of thing.”

Her smile widened. “Of course. Both of your teams deserve the leisure. Take jumper three. Zalenka’s currently working out a problem with jumper one. It seems the sensors keep coming unaligned.”

John nodded. “Hope he can fix it. That’s my favorite jumper. Well, I’m off. I have to go get ready. We’ll be leaving in about an hour, so…I’ll see you later.”

She nodded and watched him leave, hoping nothing would go wrong today. Both teams really did deserve the day off and some time to relax.

John went back to his quarters and got ready for the day. He slipped on a pair of khaki shorts over a pair of swimming trunks before slipping on his running shoes. He grabbed his backpack and put his sandals inside. They weren’t the dorky-looking ones his father would wear on occasion. These were the more sporty, rubber ones with no backs. He preferred those over the more… ‘old man’ ones, as he referred to them.

He grabbed a towel out of the bathroom and threw it inside the bag along with a tube of sunblock just in case. He knew that Rodney would whine and complain if he didn’t have any, so he figured he’d bring along some just in case. He packed up anything he thought he may need while over on the Mainland, including a football he’d brought along with him from Earth from one of his last trips. He was looking forward to teaching the Athosians how to play.

When he was done packing everything he’d need, he headed towards the jumper bay. It was getting to be the time when they needed to all meet up, so he figured he might as well get there a couple of minutes early.

No one stopped him on his way there. Everyone he passed saw him in civvies and knew that it was his day off so they all knew better than to stop him for something. He made it to the jumper bay with plenty of time to spare.

He walked around to the back of the jumpers and headed down towards number three. As he was passing jumper one, he noticed Zelenka sitting in the rear compartment typing away on a laptop.

“How’s it goin, Radek?”

Zelenka looked up, startled from sudden noise. “Ah, Colonel. Not the person I was expecting to be checking up on me.”

John smiled. “I’m not checkin’ up on you, Doc. I’m taking jumper three to the Mainland with the rest of my team and Lorne’s here in a few minutes. It’s our day off so I figured why not go have some fun. I heard jumper one’s been having more technical difficulties?”

Zelenka pushed up his glasses and leaned back against the seat, sighing. “Yes, it is very frustrující...eh, frustrating. Every time I fix a problem there is something else that is wrong. Zkurvená sračko. Když to nebude začít pracovat, odešel jsem.”

John stared at him, speechless, before nodding hesitantly. “Right…Well, good luck with that. Oh, I also managed to get Rodney out of your hair for the rest of the day, so have fun while he’s gone.”

Radek looked up at him, momentarily happy. “Ah, Colonel, you have saved my sanity for a little while. Děkuji! Eh, eh...thank you!”

John smiled kindly at the man. “No problem. Well, gotta be getting things ready. I’ll see you later. Good luck.”

He walked away, but before he got out of earshot, he heard a string of Czech curses rattling out from the jumper. He chuckled to himself, momentarily wondering what it was he was saying.

He walked up the hatch door into the rear compartment of jumper three and set his bag down by one of the benches. He walked into the cockpit and sat down in the pilot’s chair. He brought up the HUD since he still had some time and ran some routine pre-flight tests just to make sure everything was okay with this jumper before they tried taking off. With one of the jumpers acting up, you could never be too careful. Just as the tests were completed, the rest of the group started trickling through the back. He turned around in his seat and smiled at the first to come through. He wasn’t at all surprised to see Teyla and Ronon as the first to show up.

“You guys ready for some leisurely fun?”

The smile on Ronon’s face was enough of an answer for John, so he turned to Teyla who nodded, quite obviously excited. “Indeed. I am looking forward to seeing my people again. It has been too long since I have been to the Mainland.”

John nodded, “Yeah, same here. It’s been a while.”

Lorne walked through next, followed by his team a moment later. John smiled. “Glad you guys could make it! I hope you all like a good game of football.”

There were various cheers and exclamations from Lorne’s team, all as excited as the next to get a game of football going. It’d been so long since any of them had played.

John looked down at his watch and rolled his eyes. Rodney was late. “Anyone seen McKay?”

They all looked around at each other and shook their heads. John sighed and reached up to his com. “McKay, this is Sheppard. You’re late.”

“Hold your horses, Colonel. I’ll be there in a minute.”

“You know, McKay, for every minute you’re late…I’ll make you suffer without your data pad…with the Athosian children.”

He knew that would get McKay moving much faster, as did the rest of the group who chuckled.

“You wouldn’t…”

“Oh, I assure you I would. If you don’t believe me, you can ask Teyla. I’m sure she could back me up.”

He looked up at Teyla to see her smiling knowingly. She knew that he would do just as he was threatening to do, especially if it got McKay moving faster. They didn’t receive a response from Rodney, but a moment later he was hauling ass through the back hatch.

“I was barely three minutes late! You touch my data pad and you will lose a hand, Sheppard!”

John snickered, “Relax, McKay. As a matter of fact, that’s the whole point of having the day off. To, you know, _relax_. That means no work. You will have fun today, kick back, enjoy yourself. We never get the day off, so you will not take it for granted. That’s an order.”

Rodney rolled his eyes as he sat down in the co-pilot’s seat. “Sheppard, you have the day off too which means you can’t give orders.”

“No, it means I give _less_ orders. If I need to give them, then I give them. You’ll just have to live with it.”

He spun his chair around towards the controls. “Everyone ready? I’m going to raise the back hatch.”

Evan glanced around the jumper, inspecting to make sure everyone was there and accounted for with everything they would need for the day. “We’re good to go.”

“Good.”

He hit the button to raise the hatch and then turned on communications. “Control room, this is jumper three. We are all set and ready to head to the Mainland if we’re clear to go.”

“Jumper three, you are all clear to go. Enjoy those waves, Colonel! I hear they should be pretty nice today.”

John smiled, “I intend to do just that. We’ll see you tonight. Jumper three out.”

He lifted the jumper into the air as the bay doors started to open and daylight streamed inside. John couldn’t help the smile that spread onto his face as they lifted up and out of the central tower, into the sky. They had a twenty minute flight to the Mainland, which wasn’t too bad.

“So. What’s first on the agenda for everyone?”

Ronon leaned forward in his seat. “I thought we could head straight for the waves. Earlier the better.”

John chuckled, “Sounds like a damn good plan to me. I’ve been itchin’ to go surfing. What about you, Evan?”

Evan looked up from his spot on one of the benches. “I was thinking about joining the two of you, if you don’t mind. It’s been years since I’ve been out on the waves.”

John nodded, “Fine by me.”

Ronon turned towards Lorne and nodded. One of the men on Lorne’s team, Captain Williams, spoke up next. “I was hoping to go see Jinto and the rest of the kids, maybe teach them some Earth games or something.”

Teyla turned in her seat, smiling at the Captain. “I think that is a lovely idea, Captain. I am sure they would enjoy that.”

He smiled at her before looking across the rear compartment at his friend, Sergeant Harold. “I was thinking about helping out Naedan with anything that needs done. I know they’re always building something new every time I go there.”

Harold looked over at Staff Sergeant Dole who shrugged. “Maybe I’ll go see if Arasa needs anything.”

Harold smiled knowingly. “Oh, I’m sure she does.”

Teyla glanced back at the two of them, wondering if Dole had a crush on Arasa. She was a lovely young woman who wasn’t currently seeing anyone among their people. Teyla had a feeling that if the two of them attempted a relationship that they would be good together. She’d been around the Staff Sergeant on many occasions when the two teams went on missions together or would rescue the other from a situation.

John looked over at Rodney. “So. McKay. What are _you_ going to do when we get there? And don’t even think about saying work.”

Rodney looked up from his data pad and grimaced. “Oh, I don’t know. I thought I’d go lay on the beach, work on my tan, take a cat nap while listening to nature.”

John smirked. “Good. You do that.”

He heard Rodney snort as he turned back to the controls. They were almost there. He let his mind wander for a moment back to the city, back to his girlfriend. He couldn’t suppress the smile that came to his face at the word. He could finally call her his girlfriend. And the best part was she wasn’t a complete psychopath like his last one.

“What are you grinning about, Sheppard? Wait, never mind. Please don’t tell me. I’d rather be spared from the years of therapy I’d need to recover.”

John rolled his eyes. “I’m keepin’ it PG, thank you.”

Rodney looked up. “PG? Really? What the hell did the two of you do last night that was PG?”

John looked over at him as if he were the stupidest person he’d ever met. Which, at times, was the case. “I’m not even going to respond to that.”

McKay thought about it for a moment before shaking his head violently. “Never mind. Please, please don’t answer that. I’d rather keep my virtue, thank you.”

John almost choked on his own spit. “Your _virtue?_ Really? Your virtue? Please tell me you’re not a virgin.”

McKay glared at the spikey haired flyboy. “What? No! Of course not! I get…women. And I’m with Katie Brown, thank you very much!”

John lifted an eyebrow. “And you guys…you know? Like…you actually…?”

McKay’s lips parted. “You know, I see your lips moving, but no intelligent words are coming out…I can’t understand a word you’re saying.”

John rolled his eyes and concentrated back on the controls. A few minutes later and he was bringing the jumper down to rest on the ground a short ways away from the settlement. He hit the button to release the rear hatch and stood up. “Okay! Only one rule for today. If you get into trouble and I have to come bail you out, I’m going to shoot you. Have fun!”

McKay grimaced up at Sheppard. “What if _you’re_ the one getting into trouble? Does that mean I get to shoot you?”

John shook his head, not even bothering to answer that as he moved into the rear compartment and picked up his back pack.

“See! You didn’t answer me! That means I get to shoot you!”

John walked down the ramp and looked around. He hadn’t been to the Mainland in some time and had missed it. He was just glad they’d decided to leave the surfboards they’d made here near the settlement instead of lugging them back and forth with them. It was so much easier.

John turned to Teyla. “Okay, Ronon, Lorne, and I will be on the west tip if you need us. I’m leaving my headset with my bag though, so you’ll have to send someone to come get us if you need anything.”

She nodded, smiling at the three men. “Everything will be fine, John. I hope the three of you enjoy yourselves. And…don’t get hurt.”

Ronon grunted and Evan chuckled. “We’ll try, but no guarantees with the three of us.”

Teyla nodded, “That is exactly why I said it.”

Before any of them could comment, she smiled and walked away, moving towards the settlement to see her people. John nodded. “Right. Well, how about we head over to the storage shed we built and get the boards, then we’ll get to the waves.”

They quickly retrieved their boards as the storage shed wasn’t very far from where John had parked the jumper. It was a twenty-minute walk from the storage shed to the west tip, so they used that time to talk about new transfers, fighting sessions, upcoming missions, you name it. They talked about getting together in the next few days and having a sort of cookout with their teams, and Nikki of course.

Once they finally made it to the beach, they dropped the bags they were each carrying. John pulled his shoes and socks off, stuffing his socks inside his running shoes. Next, he dropped his khaki shorts, revealing his black swimming trunks underneath. He opened his bag and stuffed his shorts inside along with his shirt. Once he was done, he looked up to see the other two men ready as well. He picked up his board with a smile and headed down towards the waves.

 

 

Teyla walked into the settlement and immediately spotted Charin talking to Halling. “Charin! Halling!”

They both looked up and the smiles that sprang to their faces melted her heart in an instant. She truly missed being with her people.

She approached them and greeted them both in the Athosian way. Halling smiled down at her. “Teyla, it is nice to see you. I hope this trip hasn’t been for another relocation?”

She shook her head, her smile never faltering. “No, it is simply an innocent visit, I assure you. Our team, as well as Major Lorne’s, has the day off so both teams decided to make a trip to the Mainland for the day. Colonel Sheppard, Ronon, and Major Lorne are already on their way to the west tip to surf.”

Halling chuckled. “They waste no time. Come, Teyla, we were just discussing the birth of a new one. Lira has had her baby.”

Charin smiled, “And she is as beautiful as her mother. I delivered her myself.”

Teyla’s smile only grew. She truly loved being back amongst her people. She only wished she were here more often.

 

Captain Ronnie Williams loved kids. He’d been the oldest of six children growing up and had lived on a street filled with kids younger than him. He’d even volunteered to watch the kids during the Sunday morning sermon at his church back home. He’d always had a soft spot when it came to children.

His goal today was to find Jinto and teach him and some of the other kids some Earth games, maybe even learn some games himself. It didn’t take him long to see Jinto sprinting across the settlement with a small group of boys around his age.

“Hey, Jinto!”

Jinto came to a halt and looked around for the person who’d called his name. His face lit up when he saw the Captain walking towards them. “Ronnie! I was not aware you were coming today!”

When Ronnie met up with them, his smile widened. “Yeah, well, it was sort of last minute. Had the day off, so I figured I’d come hang with you guys if that’s alright with you.”

Jinto and the other boys nodded, they all loved when Ronnie came to the Mainland to see them as he did every chance he got.

“Of course. We were just headed down to the river if you want to join us.”

Ronnie smiled. “Yeah, I’d love that.”

 

Rodney walked towards the beach where he could get some privacy. He knew that if Sheppard found out that he was working on his tablet, he’d make him pay for it. So, what better way to not let Sheppard find out than to hide out on the beach in one of the last places he would usually be found!

He threw a beach towel down on a spot in the sand before settling down. The first thing he did once he was settled was lather himself up with sun block. There was no way he was going back to the city looking like a ripe tomato again. It’d taken weeks to get people to stop making jokes about it the last time.

Once every patch of white skin was covered in thick layers of sun block, he wiped his hands on his pants and picked up his tablet, getting to work on a project he’d been working on in secret for nearly two weeks. He’d found something in the Ancient database that could potentially mean the end of relying on ZPM’s for a means of a power source. He was reluctant to mention it to anyone in fear that he was wrong and would get everyone’s hopes up. He didn’t want to do that again.

 

Nikki walked through the halls of Atlantis on her way to her lab. It hadn’t been all that long since John and the rest of the group had left for the Mainland and she was looking for something to keep her mind preoccupied.

She was still mind-blown that she could officially call John her boyfriend. Ever since she’d seen him that first day she came to live on Atlantis, she knew that they would be close to him in some way. She just had no idea it would be in this way.

After the night she shared with him last night, she wished she could spend some more time with him today. Last night had been the best night of her life as of yet and she knew that the longer she was with him, the better it would get. And not just the sex.

Nikki walked into her lab and sat down at a lab table, pulling open her laptop and getting to work on one of her latest projects. She sat there working for what felt like hours before it was time for lunch. She’d made plans to have lunch with her brother since everyone else was on the Mainland. She still had to tell him about her and John making things official.

She walked into the mess hall and found him already sitting at a table so she got her food and joined him. When she sat down opposite of him, he looked up. Instantly his brows rose. “Why are you so happy?”

Nikki rolled her eyes. “What? I can’t just be happy to be living in this amazing city with my brother and some awesome friends?”

Alex studied her for a minute before shaking his head. “No, you can’t. Spill.”

She sighed. Right down to business, then. “Well…I _do_ have some news to tell you.”

“You’re not pregnant, are you?”

She gave him the best bitchface she could manage causing him to throw his hands into the air. “What? It’s possible!”

She shook her head, “No, I’m not pregnant. I’m…uh…John and I made it official last night. We’re dating now.”

She met his eyes and saw hesitation along with another emotion she couldn’t quite identify. “Really? You and John?”

She tilted her head the slightest bit. “Yeah. Do you have a problem with that?”

Alex shook his head too quickly. “No, no, no. I didn’t say that. I think you two…will make a good couple.”

Nikki narrowed her eyes. “What does that mean?”

Before Alex could respond, her headset went off. She raised a hand. “Dr. Nikki Teagan, we need you in the lab.”

“Saved by the com.”

“On my way.”

She rose from the table without letting him say anything more and left the mess hall. She told herself that she would deal with it later. She had no idea what that’d been about. Alex liked John. She didn’t see why he would have a problem with them being together.

A few minutes later, she was walking into the lab. She saw four scientists huddled around a table shouting at each other. She immediately spotted Radek standing off to the side, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

“Radek, what’s going on?”

He looked up as she approached and put his glasses back on. “I arrived not long ago and found them like this. They will not see reason. Or stop shouting. I did not know what else to do, but call you.”

She nodded, turning towards the group. She placed two fingers into her mouth and whistled as loud as she could. Immediately the shouting ceased and they all turned to look at her.

“Someone want to tell me what the hell is going on?”

Miko, one of the scientists, stepped forward. “Dr. Teagan, there was a problem with one of the new devices that a team recently found in the outskirts of the city. It…started flashing rapidly and then…”

She lifted an eyebrow. “And what? What’d it do?”

“That’s the thing…It just stopped. And then an alert started going off.”

“What kind of alert?”

“Um…”

The spidey sense that John always got when something bad was about to happen sunk into the pit of her stomach. The group stepped aside and let her see the flashing alert on her laptop screen. Her and Radek shared a quick look before stepping closer.

“To není dobrý…”

Nikki nodded, catching the gist of what he’d said. “Call Dr. Weir. Immediately. This is not good…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo...? What did you guys think of part one? Intense, right? Haha! Stay tuned!


	11. Friday-Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The continuation of what happens on the team's day off! Plus some fluff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does anyone read these posts? At all?

**Chapter 11**

Dr. Weir raced into the lab. “What’s the situation?”

Nikki looked up from her laptop. “Well, the good news is…we now know what this devise is. The bad news? Whoever activated it, activated a detonation device. If we don’t get this shut down soon…we’ll all be dead.”

Elizabeth nodded. “How soon?”

Nikki frowned. “We can’t tell yet.”

Elizabeth took a breath. “Okay, what are our options, then?”

Nikki turned back to her laptop. “Well…We can’t just remove the device and chuck it into outer space. I’ve already thought of that. It seems that if the balance of the chemicals inside of it are tilted off balance it could explode then and there. So…it’s not going anywhere.”

“Okay. Is there any way for you to disarm it?”

Nikki bit her lip. “That’s what I’m hoping for. Radek ran back to his lab to grab some equipment. We’re trying to figure out how big the explosion would be and how deadly. For all we know…it could just blow up this room and the rest of the city is perfectly safe. Or…”

“Or the entire city could be blown apart. Or worse…”

Nikki nodded. “Exactly.”

Elizabeth pinched the bridge of her nose, thinking through her choices. “Okay. I think I should contact the others on the Mainland. This is a big problem.”

Nikki looked up. “I would suggest waiting until we have more information to give them before having them pick up and leave. Right now, we don’t know that much. Just give me a little time before you contact them.”

Dr. Weir nodded. “How long will it take you to determine the urgency of the situation?”

At that moment, Radek flew through the door carrying equipment in his arms muttering Czech curses under his breath. He laid everything out on a nearby table and started carefully attaching things to the small detonation device. He pulled out some kind of hand held device and seemed to be taking readings. Nikki looked up at Elizabeth. “I suggest that for now…we at least evacuate to the other side of the city. Just to be on the safe side.”

Elizabeth nodded, reaching for her com. “Attention, this is Dr. Weir. Anyone who is on the North side of the city is required to immediately drop what you’re doing and evacuate to the opposite side of the city. This is not a drill. Evacuate until further notice. Weir out.”

Nikki looked around the lab at the scientists standing awkwardly by. “That means you guys too. Go.”

They all nodded and scurried out of the room, terrified for their lives.

Nikki went back to her laptop, readings were coming in from the device. “There’s a lot of data on there as well…Wait a minute…”

Radek looked up from his readings to raise an eyebrow in her direction. “What is it? Did you find something?”

Nikki nodded absently. “I think I know why the device suddenly armed when they activated it…All the scientists who were in here don’t have the ATA gene except Miko. She wasn’t the one who activated it, it was Anderson. So…”

Elizabeth stepped forward. “You’re thinking that because they didn’t have the gene that it activated the detonation device?”

Nikki nodded, swiveling in her chair towards Dr. Weir. “From what I’m reading…it looks like this devise was built to be operated solely by the Ancients. It contains a lot of data on here. My best guess would be that once it was activated by someone without the gene…it went on the defensive. It decided that it would rather…explode…than let that kind of information fall into the enemies hands.”

Radek nodded, “That makes sense…except one thing. How could it have been activated without the gene…?”

Nikki bit her lip. “That’s the other problem. I have no idea.”

 

John chowed down on his Athosian stew that had recently been placed in front of him compliments of Charin. She’d seen the three men coming and had gotten out three bowls, knowing they were headed her way for lunch. Whenever they were on the Mainland, they always stopped in her tent for a meal and some good conversation.

“Thanks, Charin. I think your cooking is getting better every time I come here. It’s always amazing.”

Charin smiled, placing a hand on John’s shoulder. “I am honored you enjoy it so much, John. I just wish I could enjoy your company more often and that of your friends. It is always the highlight of my day when Teyla’s friends come to see me. An old woman has to find her entertainment somewhere, doesn’t she?”

John chuckled, taking a bite of his bread. “Sorry about that. You know we’d come more often if we could. I’m going to see if next time we come, a friend of ours will come with so you can meet her.”

Evan, Teyla, and Ronon looked up, the knowing smiles on their faces. Charin didn’t miss the looks the three cast amongst themselves. “Who is she? I need to meet any girl who is special to any one of my boys.”

The three men blushed slightly, knowing how much the older woman had grown so attached to them. She treated them the same way she did Teyla, as if they were her grandchildren.

“Her name’s Nikki. She, uh, is my girlfriend.”

The smile on Charin’s face grew. “Oh? Then you definitely need to bring her around very soon. I need to meet her. I can make her my tuttle root soup and we can share stories about you.”

John froze, his spoon halfway to his mouth. Evan nearly choked on his soup at the image of John frozen at the thought of the two women sharing stories about him. Ronon had to slap him on the back a few times to get his breathing under control again.

John looked up at Charin, his grimace falling into place. “I’m looking forward to it already.”

Rodney trudged towards them, his face slightly burnt, but not too bad. John guessed he’d lathered up his face pretty good to keep from looking like a tomato again.

“Hey, McKay. Where’ve you been all day?”

McKay plunked down at the table next to John. “I’ve been at the beach. Where have _you_ been?”

“On the waves. Like you knew I’d be.” John’s eyes narrowed. “You were working, weren’t you?”

Rodney’s eyes widened a fraction. “How the hell did you-. You know what? I’m not even going to answer that. It’s none of your business what I do with my day off. What does it matter to you, anyway?”

John rolled his eyes. “Because I’m your friend, Rodney, and it’s not healthy to work 24/7 non-stop. You need to take a break that doesn’t include stuffing your face and short naps.”

Rodney perked up the slightest bit. “Speaking of…there doesn’t happen to be any more where that soup came from, hm?”

Charin grinned at the boys, placing a bowl and a piece of bread down in front of Rodney. “I was wondering when you’d come to see me, Rodney. I was beginning to worry. I thought of sending Ronon to come find you if you didn’t show up soon.”

Rodney tilted his brow. “Am I that predictable?”

John snorted. “Food and McKay go together like peanut butter and jelly or wings and football. Popcorn and movies. Bonnie and Clyde. Bert and Ernie.”

“Bert and Ernie?”

“You know…from The Muppets.”

Rodney rolled his eyes so hard it looked painful. “I know who Bert and Ernie are, thank you, Mr. Muppet. You need to work on your references though. And by the way, where the hell did that cut come from? I shouldn’t be surprised that you managed to get hurt on your day off.”

John had a cut by his right eyebrow. “I fell, cut it on a reef. No big deal.”

Ronon snorted. “You were under a while. We thought you drowned until we saw the blood.”

John grimaced. “Yeah, sorry about that. My board kind of got out from under me. I wasn’t expecting a reef to be there either.”

Evan nodded, “Yeah, I didn’t know the reefs were so high there.”

Rodney shook his head at them all. “So you almost drowned and then died from blood loss. You’re lucky I don’t have to go back to the city and break the news to Nikki. She’d be pissed that what finally did you in was your day off of all things.”

John rolled his eyes. “Thanks for your concern, McKay. I’m fine, really.”

Their bickering continued as the group ate their lunch. Charin joined them with her own bowl as soon as she was sure there was no one else to join them.

 

Nikki typed away at her laptop, trying to figure out what exactly was on the device. “It’s not going to let me access the information because the detonation sequence has been activated, but I do have some good news.”

Elizabeth stepped closer to her, curious. “What’s the good news?”

Nikki turned in her stool so that she was facing Radek and Elizabeth. “I believe I figured out why it could be activated when the ATA gene wasn’t used. I believe it has a special kind of sensor programmed into it to detect those who handle it who do not have the ATA gene. When someone without the gene tries messing with it, the sequence is activated, but if someone with the ATA gene is messing with it, the sequence doesn’t stop.”

Elizabeth nodded. “That makes sense. So what would happen if someone with the ATA gene were to try to deactivate the detonation sequence.”

Nikki paused. “Well…I’m not sure if it’s possible, but…I’m willing to try.”

“Right now it’s our only option besides evacuating everyone through the stargate. What are the risks to trying to deactivate it?”

Nikki bit her lip, glancing at the device on the table. “Well…it could explode.”

Elizabeth wanted to mentally slap herself. The pressure was really starting to get to her. “Right. Have you been able to determine any sort of time limit?”

Nikki shook her head. “There’s no countdown sequence that I could find. The Ancients probably wanted their enemies to be unaware of what was going on and the explosion to take them by surprise. I suggest I get to work immediately while both of you evacuate the area.”

Elizabeth took a breath, thinking over her very limited options. “Okay. When I get to the control room I’m going to send a message to the Mainland. John will kill me if I don’t.”

Nikki nodded, knowing full well that he would be royally peeved. “Okay. I’ll get to work as soon as you leave.”

They both nodded, stepping towards the door. Elizabeth looked encouragingly at her. “Good luck.”

Nikki nodded. “Thanks. I’ll need it.”

They both left the lab and Nikki waited for a couple of minutes to ensure that they had gotten far enough away just in case. She turned towards the device and picked up Radek’s scanner. She took a couple of readings before hesitantly picking it up. She ran her fingers over the surface looking for anything that could be considered an on/off switch. The entire surface was void of anything.

That’s when it started flashing. The entire device started flashing violently and changing colors from green to a dark red.

“Oh that is so not good.”

She gently set the device down before hauling ass out of her lab. She barely got down the hall when an explosion rocked the ground underneath her feet, sending her sailing into the wall before everything went dark.

 

Elizabeth was making her way quickly up the stairs to the control room with Radek right behind her when the floor shook slightly. She turned to Radek, her eyes wide.

“Was that an explosion?”

Radek raced up the stairs ahead of her and went straight to a laptop to take some readings of the city. “Yes. The device detonated.” He reached up to his com. “Nikki, can you hear me? Nikki, did you get out of there?”

They were met with nothing but static. Elizabeth’s heart started pounding, her hand flying to her own com. “Medical team near Dr. Nikki Teagan’s lab immediately!”

She started moving towards the stairs again. “Radek, we need a recovery team to that area now! You’re with me.”

They started running towards the area of Nikki’s lab, continuously trying to reach her on the com and getting nothing but static.

As they neared the area surrounding Nikki’s lab, they started to see debris. They started shouting her name instead of calling over the com. Elizabeth started picking up debris and moving it aside, looking for any sign of Nikki. From the other side of the hallway from Nikki’s lab, she saw the recovery time arrive and start doing the same thing. Working their way towards each other, Elizabeth heard moving and a soft grunt.

She moved in the direction of the noise and picked up the big piece of debris, uncovering Nikki who was becoming more conscious.

“Nikki! Are you alright?”

Nikki’s eyes adjusted and locked with Elizabeth’s. “I think so. I picked up the device and tried finding some kind of on/off switch, but it started flashing dark red. I set it down and got the hell out of there. Next thing I knew, I was heading for a wall.”

Elizabeth nodded, hearing the sounds of the med team getting closer.  “The med team is almost here. They’re going to get you checked out.”

Nikki nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

 

The ball flew through the air and landed in John’s arms. He spun around and hauled ass towards the makeshift end zone. He saw some of the Athosians racing towards him, trying to tackle him, but he picked up the pace and dashed out of their way. He saw Ronon nearing him quickly from the side.

He was almost to the end zone so he lept into the air to reach the zone in time. Right as he was crossing over the line, Ronon’s body slammed into him and they both went rolling to the ground, well over the end zone.

John could hear the cheering of his team erupt somewhere down the field telling him he’d succeeded.

“Damn, Chewy. I should never have shown you how to tackle properly.”

He heard a deep chuckle as Ronon sat up, sitting on the ground next to him. “You okay, Shep?”

Sheppard sat up slowly, rubbing his chest. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

Ronon stood up and offered his hand, helping John to his feet. The rest of John’s team reached him and started slapping him on the back, offering terms of celebration. They had just won the game!

John, Ronon, Lorne, and the rest of SGA-2 had taken it upon themselves to teach the Athosians how to play football. Teyla and half of Lorne’s team had been on John’s team while the rest of them and Ronon were on Evan’s team. Both teams had some Athosians to even out the odds.

John looked at his team with a smile on his face. “Well, that was a good game. I say we all go down to the beach now, go for a swim or something.”

Teyla smiled. “I think that is a good idea. We can relax as a team.”

John nodded, looking at the rest of their group. “What do you guys think? Head down to the beach?”

He received several nods and yes’s from those around him. “Okay! Let’s head to the beach! Anyone seen McKay?”

 

Elizabeth walked into the infirmary. She’d been writing out a report of what had happened since the next SGC weekly update was in two hours. She saw Nikki sitting at the end of an infirmary bed having a sample of blood taken. Nikki looked up as she approached.

Elizabeth smiled kindly at her. “How are you feeling?”

Nikki smiled. “Besides a headache, I feel fine. He’s releasing me, so…”

Elizabeth looked at Carson who smiled as well. “Aye, there is nothing seriously wrong with her. She has a cut on her head and a minor concussion, but it is nothing to worry about as long as it’s kept an eye on. I have instructed her to take the rest of the day off.”

Nikki huffed a laugh. “I don’t exactly have much of an argument not to considering my lab was just blown to pieces.”

Elizabeth’s smile turned comical. “Yes, that does pose a problem. I may have a solution for a way to spend the rest of your day though.”

Nikki looked up at her curiously. “So do I. Are we thinking the same thing?”

Her smile widened. “I’m sure we are. I’ll have Markham take you over. I’m sure you can ride back with them when they return?”

The smile that erupted onto Nikki’s face was priceless. “Sure can! You know, I was planning on asking if I could go over there later after my duty shift…this just saves me the time…and buys me some more!”

Elizabeth chuckled, nodding. “You have fun and don’t get into too much trouble over there.”

As Elizabeth started to move out of the infirmary, Nikki stopped her. “So, I’m guessing you didn’t send a message to the Mainland considering John hasn’t come busting down the infirmary door?”

Elizabeth chuckled again, shaking her head. “Radek and I had just reached the control tower when the device detonated. I didn’t see a reason to waste time in sending a message telling John that a bomb had just gone off and possibly killed you, proceeding in freaking him out, when I could evaluate the situation and find out what had happened before completely destroying my Military Commander’s sanity and day off.”

Nikki smiled comprehendingly. “I understand. And thank you.”

She nodded before leaving the infirmary, leaving Carson and Nikki alone. “Well, lass, you are fine to leave as long as you take it easy on the Mainland. I also suggest telling the Colonel what happened before he finds out from someone else and goes off the deep-end.”

Nikki nodded, hopping down from the infirmary bed. “I second that. Thanks, Carson! I’ll see you later! And yes, before you say it, if I experience any problems, I will come back.”

She threw him a smile over her shoulder as she ran out of the infirmary in the direction of her quarters. She had to change real quick before she met Markham in the jumper bay. She didn’t want to go over there in her work uniform so when she reached her quarters, she picked out a cute shirt that wasn’t overdoing it for the Mainland and some shorts. She threw on her running shoes she’d just received from the last shipment from Earth.

She grabbed her new com and put it over her ear, running out of her door in the direction of the jumper bay. She made it there in record time, excited to get to the Mainland to see her friends and to see John. It’d been a long day and she could really use some comfort from him.

She slowed her pace as she neared the jumper bay to get her breathing under control. She didn’t want Markham to see just how restless she was to get to the Mainland. The whole city probably knew by now that they were a couple, so it’d just be embarrassing.

She walked up the ramp to jumper four and smiled when she saw Markham starting his pre-flight routine. “Afternoon, Markham! I appreciate you taking me over there. I’d do it myself, but Carson’s orders.”

The man looked up at her as she settled into the co-pilot’s seat. “It’s not a problem. I just wish I could stay for a while when we get there.”

Nikki looked up at him. “Are you on duty?”

He nodded sadly. “Yeah. Usually I love being on duty, but I’d rather be on the Mainland.”

She smiled. “I really don’t blame you.”

He smiled, hitting the communications control. “Flight, this is jumper four. We’re go for launch.”

“Jumper four, this is flight. Opening the bay doors. You have a go. See you soon.”

He brought the jumper up into the air and through the opening in the ceiling. They were officially on their way to the Mainland!

 

John sat up from his spot on the beach. He’d taken a short nap after going for a long swim. Teyla was sitting next to him, watching the children still out in the water.

“How long was I out?”

Teyla looked over at him, smiling. “Not too long. Maybe an hour. Are you rested?”

John nodded, rubbing the top of his head. “Yeah. Sure am hungry though.”

Teyla’s smile widened. “I was just about to call the children in from the water to get some food. I am sure Charin is almost finished preparing a meal.”

John nodded, getting to his feet. He stretched his back and then looked around for the others. He spotted Ronon and Evan still in the water splashing around with some of the kids. Rodney was marching up from the shoreline looking soggy. John couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of his friend.

“Rodney, what the hell happened to you?”

Rodney looked up with a sour expression on his face. “Ronon dumped me in the water, that’s what happened. And for your information, I am not someone who particularly appreciates being dunked!”

John chuckled. “Just like a cat. This might cheer you up. We’re gonna head up and see if supper’s done. You in?”

The look on McKay’s face changed significantly. “Tuttle root?”

Teyla smiled widely at him. “I believe Charin made tuttle root soup. I hear she added a new spice to the soup and it tastes even better than the last time we all had it.”

John’s eyes met hers. “Better? Is that possible?”

She chuckled, standing up and turning towards the water. “I will go gather the children and we can all go try the soup.”

John nodded and then looked down at the water, trying to catch Ronon and Evan’s attention. Evan happened to look in the direction of the shore and saw John wave them in.

Rodney turned to John as Ronon and Evan were walking out of the water. “You think…”

John raised one of his eyebrows. “Do I think what, McKay?”

“You think everything’s okay? In the city? Without us?”

John was silent for a moment as he studied Rodney. “You do realize we’re gone a lot on missions and the city is almost always still in one piece when we get back, right?”

Rodney nodded, lost in his own head. “Yeah, you’re right.”

John shook his head, resting a hand on McKay’s shoulder. “I’m sure everything’s fine, Rodney. You just gotta try to relax. The day’s almost over. Before you know it, we’ll be back in the city and you can go back to all-nighters and cup after cup of coffee.”

Before John could get a response, Ronon and Evan joined them, soon followed by Teyla and the children. They all walked together back to the Athosian camp as John pulled on his t-shirt he’d taken off before he’d gotten into the water. He’d already pulled on his running shoes before they’d left the beach.

It wasn’t long before they were back at the Athosian camp and could smell the tuttle root soup. Rodney and the kids picked up speed and headed straight for Charin’s tent. The children were diverted in the direction of their own tents, but Rodney kept on going.

John and the others smiled, watching him almost full-on run to the table near Charin’s tent. They all gathered around the table, Teyla helping Charin with the last of the preparations of the meal. Charin was asking them about their game of football when Ronon and Evan looked up and smiled at a point just over John’s shoulder.

John wasn’t particularly paying attention though as he was answering her question. Teyla had turned around, as had Rodney. Teyla was smiling at whatever the two of them were looking at. Evan reached over and nudged John’s arm. When he got his attention, Evan gestured to something behind him. John turned around and couldn’t help the smile that broke across his face. He’d been sitting at the table, so he got to his feet and started moving towards her.

There was a huge smile on Nikki’s face as she met him a little ways from the table. He wrapped his arms around her as she rested her head on his shoulder. “Oh man, it is so good to see you after the day I’ve had.”

John held her closer, curious as to what had happened. “Everything okay?”

Nikki nodded. “Yeah, everything’s fine. Just been a very long day.”

John pulled back and smiled until he saw the cut on her head. “What the hell happened?”

She realized he saw the cut and was about to answer when she saw his own cut. “What the hell happened to _you_?”

He shook his head, “I fell off my board and hit a reef. I’m fine, but what happened?”

She sighed. “It’s kind of a long story…I’ll tell you everything, but can we sit down?”

He nodded, wrapping his arm around her waist and steering her over to the table. He looked up at Charin. “Charin, this is Nikki. Nikki, this is Charin. She’s like everyone’s grandma. And her cooking is phenomenal.”

Charin chuckled and greeted Nikki in the Athosian way. “It is nice to meet you, dear. I am glad to meet someone who is special to one of my boys.”

Nikki smiled at her, glancing up at John. “I have heard a lot about you. I’ve been told several times about your cooking, and not just by John.”

Charin smiled. “They tend to exaggerate. You are always welcome here, Nikki. Anyone special to them is welcome here.”

Nikki’s smile widened. She let John direct her over to the table and sit down next to him. He turned towards her, his face serious. “Okay, tell me what happened.”

Rodney’s head snapped up. “Wait. Something happened in the city? I knew it! I told you, Sheppard!”

John glared at him. “Would you be quiet.”

Nikki sighed. “Well…uh…my lab kind of…blew up.”

John and Rodney’s heads whipped back to look at her. “What?!”

Rodney’s eyes were huge. “You blew up your lab?! How?! I thought you were the capable one!”

Nikki rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t the one who blew it up. I was the one who tried to stop it from blowing up. One of the scientists picked up a device that was found in the city by a search team. They accidentally activated it. It contained information on it, but I wasn’t able to access it as they had also activated a detonation sequence on it. When it’s activated by someone without the ATA gene, it activates the detonation sequence so the information can’t land in the enemy’s hands.”

John was nodding along. “Okay, so one of them picked it up and activated it. Why wasn’t I informed?”

Nikki grimaced. “We were waiting to get more information before we alerted you. When Elizabeth went back to the control tower to radio you, it exploded.”

John blinked. “And where were you when it exploded?”

She bit her lip. “Uh…running away from my lab?”

Rodney waved his hands in the air. “Wait, who was it who activated the bomb?”

“Anderson.”

He stared at Nikki for a long moment. “Anderson. Why doesn’t that surprise me? You know what? He’s fired!”

Charin set a bowl of soup down in front of him before he could continue his rant. His eyes locked onto the bowl and he started to dig in, effectively shutting him up. John ran his thumb lightly along the cut on her head. “So how’d you get the cut? What happened when it went off?”

“I thought I might be able to deactivate it since I have the ATA gene, but it started flashing. I set it down on the table and ran for it. I didn’t get that far down the hallway when it went off. The force of the explosion threw me into the wall and I passed out. Elizabeth found me not that long afterwards. Carson checked me over. He said I have a minor concussion, but I’m fine.”

John frowned, his hand resting gently on her cheek. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

Nikki smiled at him, resting her hand on his knee. “Me too. That looks like a nasty cut.”

Evan chuckled. “Should’ve been there. I’m surprised the Pegasus version of a shark didn’t smell the blood and come to eat him.”

John rolled his eyes. “It wasn’t _that_ much blood.”

Ronon looked at him dumbly. “Really?”

John pursed his lips, not really wanting to argue anymore. “So, is the soup done?”

Charin smiled at him, setting down bowls in front of him and Nikki. “Yes, it is. Enjoy.”

They all dug into their food, telling Charin how good it was. She sat down and shared the meal with them, enjoying being able to spend time with them. They shared off-duty stories, Milky Way stories, and stories from off-world missions. They shared embarrassing stories and ones with touching endings. They also shared stories that had them all laughing so hard they could barely breathe.

Teyla and Evan cleaned up the dishes. John looked at Nikki and grabbed her hand, standing up. “Come on, I want to show you something.”

As they left the table, he looked back over his shoulder at Ronon. “We’ll be back later.”

He wrapped his arm around her waist and led her towards the beach. They walked in silence, enjoying just being together. The sun was sinking and John wanted to sit and watch the sunset with her. They found a spot along the beach and settled down into the sand. Nikki rested her head on his shoulder and sighed contentedly. “This is exactly what I needed after today…”

John rested his head on top of hers and held her close. “I’m glad you’re okay, Nikki. I really am.”

She moved her hand over and found his, entwining her fingers with his. “I’m sorry we didn’t contact you. I just didn’t want to ruin your only day off if we could fix it easily and quickly. When it became apparent that wasn’t going to be the case…Elizabeth went to contact you.”

John nodded, “I understand why you didn’t. If the situations had been reversed, I probably would have done the exact same thing. I just…I care about you a lot, Nikki. I don’t want anything happening to you.”

Nikki pulled her head up and looked in his eyes. All she could see was care and concern for her safety. She smiled softly at him, placing one of her hands on his cheek. “I care a lot for you too, John. I’m always worried when you go off-world that you won’t come back or, if you do come back, you’ll be seriously hurt.” She leaned forward and rested her forehead on his, closing her eyes. “I’m okay. And you’re okay. We’re sitting on a beach on an alien planet three million light years from where we considered home for most of our lives. There’s a beautiful sunset in front of us and we’re together. This is a damn near perfect way to end a day.”

John smiled, looking up at her as she opened her eyes. “Damn near? What would make it better?”

She pretended to contemplate it for a long moment. “Oh, I’d say if you kissed me right about now, then it’d be perfect.”

“Well, in that case…” He leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers, tilting his head slightly to the side to allow for more access. They stayed pressed together for a long minute, just enjoying it before pulling away and smiling.

Nikki turned back to the sunset that was even more breathtaking than it had been a minute ago. “This is beautiful, John. We should come to the Mainland more often.”

John nodded, resting his head gently against hers and gazing out at the sunset. “Yeah, we should.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed the fluff! I have the next 3 chapters planned out already.


	12. Brotherly Love Part One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long awaited update...I wasn't going to make this a two-part chapter but I figured I might as well so I can get a chapter up. Hope you enjoy!

**Chapter 12**

Nikki sighed, scrolling through page after page of information in the Ancient archives. She’d been scrolling for the past six hours without a break besides to refresh her cup of coffee. She’d even skipped lunch, suffering with only a handful of power bars to hold her over until supper, if she could get away.

Her head was pounding, her butt was numb from sitting for so long, and her taste buds needed a break from the constant thrum of caffeine abuse. She’d just get up and go to the mess hall or go for a walk if the research she was doing wasn’t important. Dr. Weir had asked her to research a topic pertaining to a civilization one of the off-world teams had run across. She’d put most of her time and energy into finding any information that might help negotiations and cool the tensions that seemed to be rising from every direction.

John had done his best to be the caring, supportive boyfriend. He brought her food when he figured she’d start to get hungry. He kept her company when she would take a break and he was the one to drag her out of her lab in the middle of the night so that she could get some sleep before going right back to more research.

Nikki looked down at her watch and saw that it was well past lunchtime. Of course, she’d already known that thanks to her growling stomach. She figured twenty minutes would be fine. If she took a short lunch break, she could get right back to research and she’d have a bit more energy to help her dive back in.

When she reached the mess hall, she noticed that John’s team wasn’t there. They must have already eaten and left, probably in a meeting of some kind or in the gym training. She also noticed that her brother was eating alone at a table across the room. Once she’d filled a tray, she sat down across from him, offering a small smile before she dug right into her food. She was starving. She couldn’t remember the last meal she’d eaten that wasn’t a handful of energy bars.

“So, how’s the research coming?”

She looked up at her brother and nodded, stalling while she chewed. “It’s coming. So far we haven’t found too much that could be useful, but we’re still looking. There’s a lot of information to sort through.”

He nodded, taking a bite of his mashed potatoes. “I assume there is. The Ancients took nothing lightly or left anything out unless it suited their needs it seems.”

Nikki lifted an eyebrow in his direction. “What’s your problem?”

He shook his head, staring down at his food. “I don’t have a problem.”

She snorted. “Come on. I’ve known you my entire life. I know when something’s up. Talk to me, Alex.”

He shook his head slowly. It seemed as if he were struggling with what he wanted to say. After a few moments, he finally looked up. There was a strange intensity in his gaze that Nikki didn’t like. She’d seen it before being cast from his eyes, but not directed at her.

“I guess I may as well just come out and say it. I don’t think you and John should be together.”

Her mouth dropped open. She stared at him for a long minute, her mind struggling to catch up. Had she heard him right?

“Excuse me?”

He pressed his lips together, standing his ground against her. “I don’t think you should see John anymore.”

“I thought you liked John. What’s so bad about us being together?”

He shook his head. “He’s a great guy, Nikki, but…”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “But what, Alex?”

His eyes darkened a fraction like they did when he got upset about something. “But he’s the Pegasus galaxy whore! You know how many women he’s slept with since coming to the city? You know how many of them have been aliens? For all we know, he could have contracted some funky alien sex disease and could pass it to you.”

She shook her head incredulously. “You’re unbelievable. You really think John is some kind of man whore? You obviously don’t know him as well as you think you do.”

“No, obviously _you_ don’t know him as well as _you_ think you do. You know how many people have told me about his... _adventures_? A lot! He’s just going to end up hurting you, Nikki! Or giving you some kind of disease. Or maybe even knocking you up and leaving you to deal with it on your own. You really think he’s the kind of man to standby and be judged while his pregnant girlfriend carries his child?”

“Are you fucking kidding me, Alex? For one, I’m not pregnant so you don’t have to worry about that. For two, even if I were, he wouldn’t just dump me. And he does _not_ have some kind of disease, for crying out loud! He doesn’t go around sleeping with women all the time! Have you talked to him about this instead of listening to all the rumors? Or do you just believe everything you hear now?”

He shook his head, leaning back in his chair. “Why can’t you see that it just isn’t a good fit? He’s the Commanding Military Officer of a city three million light years away from home where he is attacked and almost killed, almost on a daily basis. You really think he has time for a relationship? A real one, I mean. Not just a benefits thing where he gets what he wants when he wants it.”

Her angry was skyrocketing the more she sat there and listened to him. “Maybe he is the CMO, but who cares if it’s three million light years away from home. I’m not on Earth, Alex. I’m right here in the same city he is. I go on some of those missions with him. I put my life in danger too. Yes, there’s a risk he may never come back, but I don’t think that’s your point here. I’m starting to think you’d rather he not come back.”

His eyes roamed her face. “Maybe that’s true. For your own benefit.”

She sucked in a breath. “Alex…how could you even say that? He has done nothing wrong! He’s sweet, funny, smart… _caring_. Do you realize just how much he sacrifices for everyone? Do you realize how much he cares about everyone here? You included!”

He shook his head. “I don’t care about how big his heart is, Nikki. I care where his dick is or isn’t. He’s just going to end up cheating on you. We both know that. And wasn’t it you who has always said you’ll never date anyone in the military because they’re too much like our father? You don’t want anything to do with the military because of Dad?”

“John is different! He’s not like others in the military. He’s not strict and by the book. He does what he does to help people, to keep them safe. He bends the rules when he knows things will turn out better if he does. He’s a good man, Alex. I don’t understand why you can’t see that! He’s not going to cheat on me! He likes me! Why can’t you see how happy he makes me? Why can’t you see how happy I make him? And for your information, I _do_ know how many people he’s slept with since he’s been here. He told me and I believe him. What I don’t believe is how you can be so stuck up and arrogant about this.”

Alex pushed himself to his feet, sliding his chair away noisily. “He’s not a good man for you, Nikki. I don’t want you seeing him. I don’t want you getting involved with him. You’re only going to get hurt. I’m trying to protect you. You’ll see that in the long run.”

She shook her head, coming to her feet as well. “No, I don’t need you to protect me, Alex! I’m an adult who is fully capable of making my own decisions. You can’t dictate who I can and cannot be involved with. You don’t have a say in this, Alex! I wanted you to be happy for me. That’s what brothers are supposed to do!”

“No, they’re supposed to protect their little, ignorant sisters! I’ve been protecting you for your entire life! I protected you when you were eighteen from Rick, didn’t I?”

She shook her head, stepping away from him. “No, you didn’t. You may have been the only one to believe me about what happened, but you didn’t protect me from him until it was too late. The damage had already been done. I’m not asking for your protection here. I’ve made friends here, Alex. Friends who look out for me. I know you think that’s always been your job, but apparently you’re not up to it anymore. You obviously can’t see what a great thing I finally have. All you want is for me to be as miserable as you are!”

“I’m not miserable!”

“Yes, you are. You’re so blissfully unaware of how completely miserable you are that you’re pushing your misery onto people around you, the people closest to you. Well, I’m not going to let it bring me down, Alex. I’m finally happy again! If you were really trying to protect me and be there for me, you would see that!”

She didn’t let him get another word in. She vaguely noticed people staring at them, watching the scene unfold. She didn’t care. She knew word would get back to John fast about what had just happened and she was glad. She needed him, but she didn’t feel like she could go to him just yet. She needed to be alone to process what the hell had just happened.

Nikki pushed herself out of the mess hall, leaving her tray lying on the table, forgotten. Her body felt numb. Her legs carried her through the halls towards a balcony she had discovered shortly after coming to the city. It was her getaway place. Most of the expedition had one.

When she reached the balcony, she sank down to the ground and leaned against the wall. She brought her legs up to her chest, wrapped her arms around them, rested her head on her knees and let her tears and sobs finally overtake her. She hadn’t allowed herself to cry until she’d been alone. She cried about her brother’s stupidity. She cried about the argument. She cried about the feeling of losing her brother. She cried about finally finding something that made her so happy, but brought so much pain.

**SGA**

John was sitting in his office, going over a mission report, when the chime went off. “Come in.”

He looked up as Teyla entered the room apprehensively. She was worried about something, he could tell. He cocked his head to the side slightly and pushed away the report, giving her his full attention. “What’s wrong, Teyla?”

She sat down in one of the chairs that sat in front of his desk and studied him for a moment. “I was in the gym training with Ronon when we heard what had happened.”

His eyebrows furrowed together. “What are you talking about? What happened?”

She took a breath, already having figured out that John had been unaware as he was sitting peacefully alone in his office. “John, there was an argument in the mess hall a couple of hours ago. Word has been going around about it. Have you been in here undisturbed since lunch?”

He nodded, leaning forward on his desk, curious. “Yeah, I haven’t spoken to anyone since I got here. What argument?”

“It was between Nikki and Alex. There was a very heated argument between them. I was not told many details, but what I do know is that she was very upset when she left the mess hall. There are many theories going around as to what it had been about, but one theory was that it had been about you. No one has seen or heard from her since then.”

His lips parted in confusion. He remembered back on the Mainland when Nikki had mentioned they had almost gotten into an argument, but he couldn’t remember why. “Okay…I’ll find her and find out what happened. Thanks for coming to tell me, Teyla.”

She stood at the same time he did and smiled softly at him. “Let her know that if she needs anything, I am only a short distance away.”

He smiled kindly at her as they walked out of his office. “Thanks, Teyla. I appreciate that and I know she will. I’ll talk to you later.”

He set off in search of his girlfriend, worry spiking up in his gut from what Teyla had said. She was supposed to be working on uncovering some pretty important information and she had been dedicated to it to the point where she would skip meals and sleep. If something had happened between her and Alex to make her go off the radar like this, then he knew it had been bad.

He looked in her lab and her quarters. He even checked his own quarters on the off-chance she’d gone there to escape, but no luck. He checked the east pier and the rec rooms. He stopped and turned in a slow circle, thinking through his options. He was running out of places to look. He’d already tried her on the com. He thought about having Rodney track her down using the sensors, but he didn’t want to get Rodney involved. He would just ask way too many questions and then make an ass of everyone. John knew he had good intentions, but his mouth was a problem.

An idea popped into his head. A couple of months after the Teagans had come to the city, he’d accidentally run across her sitting on a balcony by herself over on the south end of the city. He hadn’t let her know she’d been discovered, but quietly slipped away and gave her privacy. He’d made a point of steering clear of that area in case she needed some alone time.

He headed in that direction, somehow knowing that’s where she’d be. It only took him ten minutes before he was nearing the balcony and he could hear someone crying softly. He picked up his pace and stepped out onto the balcony, finding her folded in on herself against the wall. His heart sank.

John sat down next to her and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his chest. She let him reposition her, the tears coming faster now that he was here. She knew instantly who had sat down next to her.

“Teyla told me.”

She nodded into his chest, wrapping her fingers around a chunk of his shirt and holding on. He was grounding her and that’s what she needed.

“She didn’t know what it was about though. She said one theory was that it was about me. Was she right?”

She nodded again, her grip tightening even more.

“Do you wanna talk about it?”

“Not yet.”

He respected her need for comfort rather than discussion. After all, he was a man of few words himself. He never knew what to say let alone when it was about himself.

They stayed that way for a while. He rubbed her back, moving his thumb in small circles along her spine. John focused his eyes on the waves, watching as they came in and then slid away from the sides of the city. His mind was focused on something else: the problem at hand. It was going over every reason Alex would have to argue about him with Nikki. He thought Alex liked him. They’d hung out before, gone on missions before. He didn’t see what the problem was.

“You remember when my lab blew up last week while you were on the Mainland?”

He nodded, thinking about that day. “Yeah. You mentioned that the two of you almost argued about something. Was it about this?”

She nodded into his chest. “I told him about us that day at lunch before everything went south. He said we’d make a good couple, but I could tell he was lying. He shook his head too quickly. Before I could ask him what the hell he was talking about, my com went off and Radek needed me in the lab.”

“Okay. So then what happened today?”

He felt her take in a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. “I decided to take a break from research and go grab some lunch. You guys were all gone by the time I got there, but Alex was sitting by himself so I joined him. He was in a bad mood so I asked him what was up. He just spilled everything. He said we wouldn’t be good together and that he doesn’t want me to see you anymore. That’s how the entire thing started. It just escalated from there.”

John tensed, completely confused. “He’s forbidding you from seeing me?”

She nodded. “I don’t get it! I mean, it’s not like I’m going to listen to him. There’s no way he’s going to stop me from being with you, but he’s my brother! He should be happy for me.”

His grip tightened on her protectively. He didn’t want to lose her just because her brother didn’t want them together. That wasn’t something he’d thought would be a problem. “Did he give you a reason why we shouldn’t be together?”

She hesitated. John knew that it wasn’t going to be good. He had a bad feeling that things had just gotten worse. “Well…He, uh…The main reason he gave me was that…”

“Nikki, just tell me. Whatever it is, I can handle it.”

“He said that he heard rumors that you’re, and I quote, ‘the Pegasus galaxy whore.’ He said that you’ve slept with all these alien woman and probably have some ‘sex disease’ that you’d give me. I told him you’re not like that, but he was very adamant.”

John was speechless for a long moment. Nikki let the information process, letting him get through the information before she said anything else.

“He…Okay, first of all, I’ve only slept with one woman since I’ve been here. Yeah, she was an alien, but I didn’t _contract_ anything.”

Nikki sat up, pulling away from him slightly so that she could look at him. “John, you don’t have to defend yourself to me. I know that. Even if I didn’t, I don’t care how many people you’ve slept with. That’s in the past and we’re together now. Now, if you _did_ have something, I’d need to know, but I know that you don’t, so we’re good.”

John let out a frustrated breath. “What else did he say? He had to have some other argument.”

She nodded, grabbing his right hand and entangling their fingers. “He said that you’d get me pregnant and then dump me, leave me to handle it on my own. He said you’re not the type of guy to stay in that kind of situation.”

“You’re fucking kidding me, right? Please tell me he was kidding.”

She shook her head and looked down at their hands. She was glad to be telling him all of this and not have to shoulder it alone. She finally had someone to help her shoulder some burden.

“You don’t believe him, do you? You know that I would never do that. If that were to happen, I would never leave you because of that. Ever. You know that I’ve wanted a family of my own. It wouldn’t make sense to just leave when I’d finally get that.”

She looked up at him and smiled reassuringly. “John, I know that you would never do that. You’re a great guy. He’s just trying to come up with some argument to keep us apart. I think he sees how happy I finally am and it makes him realize how unhappy he is. I think he just doesn’t want to be alone in his misery and he’s in denial about the whole thing. And since the two of us have spent our entire lives together basically, he’s gotten used to it really just being me and him. Now that we’re out here three million light years away from home…it makes him feel even more lonely. When we came here, it was the two of us against whatever we would face, but now that I have you, your team and the rest of our friends…I don’t know. I think he just feels left out.”

John nodded, still not happy at all, but he was trying to keep his anger down. “That might be it, but that’s no reason to bring you down. You’re his sister, not someone he can trample all over. He should be happy for you and support you, not try to make your decisions for you.”

She nodded, a tear escaping. Before she could catch it, John let go of her hand and wiped it away for her. “Nikki, I’m not going to hurt you, not on purpose anyway. Sure, we’re going to argue and get pissed at each other sometimes, but that’s every couple. I’m going to be there for you when you need me as much as I can. There are going to be times when I can’t because of my job, but if I can…I _will_ be there for you. There is a risk I may step through the gate and not come back or if I do come back, I might be hurt, but I do my best to get myself and my team back safely.”

“I know that, John. I do worry about you when you go, but that’s my job, really. I worry about all of you. I know that you’ll do everything you can to come back home.”

John smiled slightly. “When was it that you started calling the city home instead of Earth?”

Nikki looked up into his eyes and shrugged. “Uh, I’m not sure. Sometime between that time the virus broke out in the city and when you started dating Melissa. I didn’t realize it until we were on that planet running for our lives…why?”

He shrugged, resting his head back against the wall. “Just curious. So…what are we going to do about Alex?”

Her eyes twinkled a little at his words. “We?”

He nodded. “Yes, we. I’m not going to make you deal with it alone. We’re a couple now which means we deal with things together, share our burdens with each other, we help each other. Neither of us are alone anymore to deal with things on our own.”

The smile that spread across her lips made his stomach do flips. She leaned in and pressed her lips against his in a deep kiss. When she pulled back, she looked deep into his eyes. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”

He chuckled. “Well, you wouldn’t be in this situation to begin with if you didn’t have me, so…”

She rolled her eyes. “That’s beside the point. None of this is your fault. It’s all on his shoulders. If he wasn’t being so ignorant…”

John thought over their conversation so far. “Did he say anything else or does that basically sum it all up?”

“Well…he kept saying he was just trying to protect me like he did when…Like he did when we were kids, but I told him I didn’t need him to protect me from you.”

John caught her hesitation and lifted his head from the wall, trying to catch her eye. “What did he protect you from, Nikki?”

She swallowed, keeping her eyes on the water. She knew she should tell him, he had the right to know, but she didn’t know if she could make it through telling him. She hadn’t talked about it in years. “Um…it happened years ago. I should probably tell you about it, but…”

John rested his hand on her arm, trying to comfort her. “Hey…you don’t have to tell me.”

She nodded and took a deep breath. “Yes, I do, but it’s not just that. I _want_ to. I want you to know. Uh…Do you remember back when you got that letter from Nancy and we were in the rec room together? You asked me how I could possibly know what you were feeling.”

John nodded, thinking about to that conversation. “Yeah. You said you’d been engaged, but something happened.”

“Yeah. We’d been together…probably since we were twelve. It didn’t actually become serious until high school, of course. His name was Rick. Rick Stevens. When I was eighteen…he asked me to marry him. Well, everything was fine. It was _more than_ fine. I couldn’t be happier. A couple of months into the engagement…I was walking back to the apartment I shared with him. It was late, I was coming from school, I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings.”

John was getting a really bad feeling. He could see tears building up in her eyes and he tightened his hold on her, giving her the support she needed.

“Well…a guy came up behind me. I don’t know who he was…I didn’t get a good enough look at him. It was too dark and everything was happening so fast. He…He raped me. I fought against him, but he was too strong for me. I couldn’t get away from him. He knocked me out when he was done and I woke up a couple of hours later. I called a friend and she took me to the emergency room to get one of those rape kits done. I filed a report. They tried to track him down, but…I couldn’t give a good enough description so it turned cold and nothing was done about it. Rick…Rick blamed me. He said it was my fault for walking home alone at night. He said it was my fault that I couldn’t fight back hard enough. It was my fault that I couldn’t describe him. I…”

A few tears escaped, rolling down her cheeks. John pulled her against his chest, going back to rubbing small circles along her spine. “That’s not your fault. There’s no way in hell that’s your fault.”

She nodded into his chest and he could feel his shirt getting even more damp than it already was. “I know that now. It took me some time, but I figured that out. Our relationship went downhill from there. He started drinking, heavily. He would come home wasted. It wasn’t long before he started knocking me around while he was drunk. He would apologize in the morning, say he’d never do it again, but…it never lasted long. It was a few weeks before Alex noticed, before anyone noticed. I didn’t say anything because…Well, I loved him. We’d been together so long. I thought it was just a phase or something. He’d get passed it, get it out of his system and everything would go back to normal again. It never did. Alex turned him in and he was arrested. He was bailed out, put on probation…I don’t think he really did any jail time. My parents still talk to him all the time. They don’t believe that he hurt me. I’m over that, but…it took me a long time to trust anyone again.”

John closed his eyes and buried his head in her hair. He wasn’t sure how to react. He couldn’t really be mad because it had happened years ago, long before they’d known each other, but he couldn’t have no emotions about it because he really cared about her and she had really gotten hurt.

“I will never hurt you like that, Nikki. Ever. I promise you that. I’d rather stand alone against an army of Wraith than ever lay a hand on you. And even if I ever tried something like that, you could kick my ass. You never have to worry about that with me, I promise.”

She nodded, tightening her grip on his shirt. “I know, John. You’re such a great guy. I trust you more than I’ve ever trusted anyone.”

He nodded and opened his mouth to say something when his com activated. It was Dr. Weir. “Colonel Sheppard? You’re needed in the control room immediately as well as Teyla, Ronon, and Dr. McKay.”

He sighed, looking at Nikki. “I’m being summoned to the control room as is my team.”

She nodded and got to her feet, reaching down a hand to help him up. They walked to the control room together, his hand resting on the small of her back. “You know, you don’t have to come with.”

She nodded. “I know, but I want to know what’s going on for all of you to be called up there together. I didn’t get through the database section yet, but…I’m hoping this isn’t my fault.”

He shook his head, starting on the steps that lead to the control room. “I’m sure it has nothing to do with that mission.”

They walked in to find the rest of his team already there. He dropped his hand from her back as they approached the group standing by Elizabeth.

“Elizabeth. You called?”

She nodded, a glint of excitement in her gaze. “Yes. One of the botanists was doing some research and came across an entry about the planet P-2510. It seems there is a plant that can make you heal faster, but it’s only located on that planet. I want your team and another team to escort some botanists and see if you can locate it, talk to some locals even, see if they know anything.”

John’s brow raised. “Okay. We’re going to play Pegasus galaxy gardeners. Awesome.” He turned to his team. “Go get suited up. I’ll be right behind you.”

They nodded and exited the control room, not really sure how this mission was going to go, but excited at the benefits they may acquire. John turned back to Elizabeth. “Who’s going to be on the botanist team?”

She walked over to one of the control panels and picked up a data pad. “Dr. Andrew Burt discovered the entry in the database, so he’ll be going. I was thinking of sending Dr. Katie Brown as well as-.”

“I think Alex Teagan should go.”

Nikki’s head snapped up and she looked at John. “John, what are you doing?”

He turned and looked at her, leveling his eyes with hers. “You trust me, right?”

She nodded, “Of course, I do, John.”

He gave her a look, added with a small smile. “Then trust me with this.”

After a moment, she nodded. “Okay. Just…don’t kill him.”

He chuckled, turning back to Elizabeth who was very confused. “I want Teagan. I think it would be a…learning experience…for him.”

Elizabeth narrowed her eyes slightly, suspicious. “Okay…I’ll let him know to get ready. I’ll send him instead of Dr. Brown, but there will be another one to accompany them. I’ll leave it up to Dr. Teagan to pick someone. John, there’s not going to be a problem, is there?”

He shook his head. “Nope. No problem. Everything’s peachy. If you’ll excuse me, I need to go get ready.”

As he walked down the stairs from the control room, Nikki stared after him. She glanced back up at Elizabeth. “Excuse me.”

She ran after him and caught him just as he was about to walk into the locker room. “John! Wait up.”

He turned around and smiled softly down at her. “You want to know why I asked for him to go with.”

She nodded, coming to a stop right in front of him. “I know you’re pissed at him. I can see it in your eyes and by how tense you are. I don’t blame you one bit. I’m still pissed too, but why do you want him?”

He looked into her eyes and rested his hands on her waist, pulling her closer to him a fraction. “He thinks I’m not good enough for his little sister. That’s why he’s coming up with all those excuses. That’s what a big brother is supposed to do, see the bad things in someone who’s with their little sister…but I’m going to show him some of the good things too. If I can…maybe I can change his mind.”

She shook her head. “John…I don’t need his approval.”

“I know that, but…you two are really close and I don’t want to be the thing that comes between you. I’m not going to settle with staying away from you because of him, hell no, but if I can change his mind about me, then I’m going to. It’ll make things easier on everyone. If I fail, then at least I can say that I tried, right?”

She smiled at him, shaking her head. “How did I get so lucky?”

He chuckled, pressing a sweet kiss to her lips. “I was going to ask the same thing. I promise not to kill him, even if I want to. If it makes you feel any better, Teyla and Ronon will be given instructions to pull me off of him if it gets too bad.”

She rolled her eyes, but chuckled. “Okay. That does make me feel a little bit better. Just…come back in one piece. And bring him back in one piece too. I may be pissed at him, but he’s still my brother.”

He nodded and pressed another kiss to her lips before stepped away. “I’ll do my best. I’ll see you when we get back?”

She smiled at him, taking a step backwards back towards the control room. “Of course. Good luck. Stay safe.”

He nodded and stepped into the locker room. He moved to his locker and started getting ready for the mission. Teyla looked up at him curiously. “Is everything okay, John?”

He looked up at her and shook his head. “Guess we’ll find out.”

**SGA**

“Okay, I want Johnson and Miller to stay and guard the gate. Notify me of any disturbances. I’ll take point with Teyla, Ronon and Stevenson on our six, botanists in the middle with McKay.”

John’s eyes flitted over the group and finally landed on Alex for the first time since he showed up in the gate room back in the city. Their eyes met and locked for a long moment. Alex could see very clearly how pissed he was and knew that Nikki had told him everything he’d said. He held his ground against the military leader, but eventually looked away. This was going to be very awkward…

John looked away, towards his team, and nodded. “Right. Let’s head out and see if we can find this plant. McKay, any life signs?”

Rodney shook his head. “No, it looks like we’re alone here. I’m not picking up any kinds of signals. We should be good.”

“Okay. Let’s head out.”

They started walking down a path between some trees that looked promising. Maybe. John didn’t really know where they were going. He wasn’t sure what the plant looked like, so he didn’t know what to look for. He was trusting the scientists to be keeping their eyes open for any signs of the stuff.

It was an hour before they found anything that even looked close to what they were looking for. The botanists started going crazy over the stuff. John stayed back out of the way, keeping an eye on their surroundings. He hadn’t spoken a word to Alex, careful not to argue or show any tension in front of the others. He kept his eyes focused on any threats that might endanger the group. He’d never be able to live with himself if he asked for Alex to join the team and then come back without him. He didn’t think Nikki would ever forgive him either.

He was looking around, observing the trees, listening to the different sounds around him, making sure he stayed a little distance away from the edge of the cliff he was standing by when he heard someone walking close to him and stop. He glanced over to see Alex kneel beside a group of plants. He looked away, trying to avoid an argument since they were with the group. He didn’t want to let his guard down while off-world. It never ended well when he did.

“So, I see Nikki told you about our discussion.”

John couldn’t help but snort. “Of course she told me. We’re together and it was about me. Of course, when I found her crying, it would have been hard to keep that from me.”

Alex looked up at John, but John was looking away, keeping his eyes open for threats. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you two to be together, but I suppose she told you that too.”

He nodded, trying to keep his anger down. “Yeah, she did. She told me everything you said, Alex. If it helps, I’ve only slept with one other woman since I’ve been in the galaxy, not that it’s any of your business.”

Alex came to his feet, facing John who was still watching the tree line. “One _other_ woman? Meaning you’ve slept together already. Well, that’s just great. Now she’s gonna be hooked, line, and sinker.”

John blew out a breath and finally met his eyes. “I really like your sister, Alex. If this is about Rick, I would never, ever hurt her like he did.”

His eyes narrowed. “She told you about Rick? What that asshole did?”

He nodded. “Yeah, she did. And she told me what happened to make him go off the deep end. I also know that this is the first serious relationship she’s been in since then. I know that after things with Rick happened, she poured herself into her work and she didn’t let herself trust anyone. She trusts me, Alex. She said she trusts me more than she’s ever trusted anyone. I have never given her a reason not to and I never will.”

He shook his head, looking away. “You’re military, John.”

“Excuse me? What does that have to do with anything?”

“She always told me she would never date someone in the military. They’re all alike. All of you. You’re all the same. You’re all just like our father.”

“I’m not the stereotypical soldier and you know that. We’ve been around each other enough for you to know that. I don’t get where all of this is coming from. We’ve hung out plenty of times. I considered you a friend, Alex. You have never had a problem with me before I asked Nikki out. So, what is it? What’s the real problem? If you can’t tell Nikki what it is, tell me.”

His eyes flicked back to John’s. He could see his anger was rising, but John was trying to keep a lid on it. “You’re not good enough for her. I don’t think you deserve to be with someone as amazing as my sister.”

“Why the hell not? What have I ever done to you to make you think so poorly of me?”

“Nothing. It’s not what you’ve done to me. I’ve read your mission reports, Colonel. I know how many lives you’ve lost, both in the city and from this galaxy. I know you were the one who woke the Wraith, how you killed the military commander, how that’s how you got your job. I know about that black mark from before you came to the city.”

John stared at him incredulously. His anger skyrocketed. “You’re fucking kidding me, right? You’re holding that against me? Do you know what really happened back in Afghanistan for me to get that black mark? Did you know that I went back to save someone’s life? That’s why I got that black mark. It was a friend of mine and he didn’t make it. Or when I shot Sumner? I had no other choice. Did you read that in the report? He was about to be a withered husk of himself. If I hadn’t shot him, there wouldn’t have been anything left of him to save. He told me to shoot him. Did you read that? He wanted me to end his life rather than suffer through what he knew would only be pain, knowing he wouldn’t survive or ever be the same. You think I wanted to become the military commander three million light years away from Earth when we didn’t have any contact with them, when we didn’t know what was out there waiting for us? We had only been there for a day when Sumner and the others were captured! If you really think that I killed him so I could get his job, then fine. I don’t give a _damn_ what you think about me.”

His voice had steadily risen as he continued talking. By now, the entire group was watching the two men as they argued. Alex didn’t miss a beat.

“Yes, actually, I do think that. I think that you wanted to redeem yourself from that black mark, so you wanted the highest job you could get and you got it! I think that you’re using your position to get whatever the hell you want, including my sister-.”

“Fuck you, Alex! I’m not using my position to do anything! I’m using my position to keep your ass alive. Nikki isn’t with me because I’m the Commanding Military Officer. She’s with me because she likes me, you ass! You have your head shoved so far up your ass that you can’t see how happy she is! Even I can see that! I remember how she was when she first got to the city. She wasn’t nearly as happy as she is now.”

The ground started to shake slightly, but neither men were paying much attention. Teyla’s eyes widened and she tried to get John’s attention. “Colonel?”

John kept pushing through, paying sole attention to Alex. “If you really wanted what was best for her, you would let her make her own decisions. All you’re trying to do is control her. She’s an adult who is fully capable of choosing what’s best for her!”

“John!”

“I get that you’re trying to protect her from what happened with Rick, but _I’m not Rick!_ I’m not going to lay a hand on her because I respect the hell out of her. And because of that, I’m not going to knock her up and then leave her and I’m not going to cheat on her. I’m not that kind of guy. You damn well know that too! Damn it, Alex, why do you-.”

“ _John!!”_

John whipped his head towards her. “What?!”

As soon as he stopped and focused his mind away from Alex, he could feel the rumble in his boots. His face fell as realization set in that something was going terribly wrong.

“Oh sh-!”

He didn’t get to finish the rest of his sentence as the ground beneath him gave way. The next thing he knew, he and Alex were sliding down the side of the cliff in some kind of mudslide. He threw his arm towards Alex and tried to catch hold of him. His arm connected with something sharp that stabbed him, going right into his forearm. He yelled out in pain, but the noise was lost over the sound of falling debris and the sound of…a river?

They dropped over a ledge a good ways down and were suddenly falling through open air. He heard Alex yell and tried to catch a glimpse of him, but everything was happening too quickly. Before he knew it, they were plummeting into a river. At the last moment, he sucked in a breath, not knowing how deep it was.

The current was strong and fast. John was thrown almost to the bottom of the river, but he managed to push off against something and fight his way to the surface. When he broke free, he looked around. “Alex!” He sucked in lungfulls of air, twisting around to try to spot Alex. He kept getting dragged under, but he finally found him. He was struggling as much as John was to stay above the water. John pushed against another rock he found under the water and tried angling himself towards Alex. He could see a gash on the side of his head, but that’s all he could make out.

“Alex!”

Alex’s eyes finally found him. They were wide and scared. “Colonel! What do we do?”

“We stay above the water and get to shore. Are you hurt?”

He nodded. “My arm’s broken for sure. Head wound, maybe a few ribs, knee doesn’t feel so good.”

John blew out a small frustrated breath. “Okay. Let’s get to shore.”

**SGA**

Teyla carefully leaned over the side of the cliff. “I don’t see them. They must have dropped into that river and been swept away. There is no way for us to track them on foot. We need to head back to the city and get a jumper.”

Ronon nodded and turned back towards the botanists. “You heard her. We’re heading back. Quickly.”

Teyla looked up at Ronon as he moved away. “You go. I’ll take them and we’ll get back. You run back and have them send out a jumper. It will be much faster that way.”

Ronon nodded and took off at a dead run for the gate. He knew that time was running out for their friends. He needed to be as quick as possible and it had been an hour walk from the gate. He pushed himself faster than he normally ran, using the skills and muscles he’d acquired as a runner.

He made it to the gate in about twenty minutes and immediately went to the DHD. He gave the guards a quick run-down of what happened before sending in his IDC and stepping through the gate.

On the other side of the wormhole, he was met by Dr. Weir and Nikki who were equally as confused as to why he’d come back alone and so soon. Dr. Weir approached him first.  “Ronon, where are the others?”

“There was a mudslide. Shep and Teagan went down a cliff into a river. We can’t track them from there so we need to send out a jumper.”

Nikki’s eyes were huge. That was her boyfriend and her big brother that went down a cliff.

Elizabeth’s hand flew to her radio. “Major Lorne, I need you and your team suited up and in the jumper bay immediately. Time is of the essence. I’ll fill you in when you get to the jumper bay. Weir out.”

Ronon headed for the bay, intending to catch a ride and point them in the direction of where they’d been when it had happened. Reaching the bay, he waited impatiently for the team to arrive. They didn’t have time to sit around. Sheppard and Alex could be dead already for all he knew.

Lorne and his team rushed into the bay, moving quickly up the ramp of the jumper he was perched in. Lorne slid into the pilot seat and activated his com. “Dr. Weir, we’re all set to go. What is it exactly we’re doing?”

“You’re on a rescue mission. Colonel Sheppard’s team as well as some botanists and extra guards went to P-2510. There was a mudslide and Sheppard and Dr. Alex Teagan were pulled down a cliff into a river. Your mission is to rescue them and bring them home safely. Ronon will show you where the cliff was. Be safe.”

He nodded, knowing she couldn’t see him and dialed the gate for the planet. He lowered the jumper down into the gate room once it was clear and slid through the event horizon. “We’ll do our best, ma’am. Lorne out.”

**SGA**

John spotted a tree positioned right next to the river. One of its branches hung over the river and dipped low enough to grab onto. He looked over at Alex. “When you get close enough, grab onto that branch and pull yourself to shore.”

Alex nodded, eying the branch. They did their best to position themselves in a way they could easily grab on and escape the current. When the tree approached, both men reached out and grabbed a hold of the branch. John paused for a moment, taking a breath, before urging Alex towards shore.

“Come on. We don’t know if there’s any debris in the water to pull us under. We gotta get out of the water.”

With one of Alex’s arms broken, it was slow going getting to shore, but they were making progress. Finally reaching the bank, John climbed around him, hauled himself up onto land and reached down to help him. “Give me your hand. I’ll help you up.”

Alex looked up at him and hesitated. John frowned. “Alex, we don’t have time for this. Give me your hand!”

He threw his hand up towards John and allowed himself to be pulled up to the safety of land. Both men laid back on the ground, letting their sore muscles relax. After a couple of minutes, John sat up and reached for his headset. “Damn it!”

Alex looked over. “What?”

“My radio is missing. It must have fallen out in the mud slide or from that damn current. Do you have yours?”

Alex reached down and pulled his from his tact vest. He tossed it to John. He fiddled with it for a few moments before throwing it to the ground. “It’s busted…Too much water damage to fix it. Looks like we’re on our own unless they find us somehow. We need to dress our injuries and start back towards the gate.”

Alex looked down at his arm. “You wouldn’t happen to have anything to make a sling, would you?”

John looked over and frowned at his arm. It was definitely broken. He looked around and sighed. “There isn’t much we can work with, but I’m sure we can find something.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Until next time, y'all!


	13. Brotherly Love Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The next part of a 3-part adventure! Will John survive the latest problem to arise?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sorry for the very long awaited update...especially with a cliffhanger. Here is the next installment of this adventure! Enjoy!

**Chapter 13**

Teyla and the others reached the gate as it was activating. A few moments later, the jumper soared through the air heading in the direction they had just came. She reached up and hit her com. "Atlantis, this is Teyla."

Dr. Weir's voice came over the radio. "Go ahead, Teyla."

"We just arrived back at the gate moments before the jumper came through. I suggest the scientists minus Dr. McKay make their way back through the gate. We can come back another time, perhaps with another jumper to look for the plant, but I suggest we concentrate our efforts on finding Colonel Sheppard and Dr. Teagan."

"I agree, Teyla. Send them back. Is there anything you need?"

Teyla looked over the scientists and nodded for them to go on ahead. Dr. McKay jumped into the conversation. "Maybe another jumper? That way we can double our search area and cover more ground faster. Time is of the essence right now."

There was a pause before she responded. "Stackhouse is on his way with Jumper five. Do you need any more equipment?"

"No, we should be good. We'll call if we find anything."

"If?"

Rodney paused, realizing what he'd said. He shared a look with Teyla who jumped to his rescue. "What Dr. McKay meant to say was that we will contact you if we need anything and when we find the Colonel and Dr. Teagan."

Nikki's voice suddenly came over the radio. "Rodney? Find them."

They could hear the fear and attempted bravery in her voice. "I will. McKay out."

Teyla frowned and turned towards the soldiers. "When the jumper gets here, you will stay with the gate in case Colonel Sheppard and Dr. Teagan find their way back on their own. Radio if they appear."

The one standing by the DHD nodded, "Will do, ma'am."

Teyla turned back towards Rodney. "You and I will join Stackhouse in the search when he arrives. I will let Major Lorne know that we will be accompanying the search."

Her hand lifted to her radio. "Major Lorne, this is Teyla."

"Go ahead, Teyla."

"Sergeant Stackhouse will be here momentarily with another jumper. When he arrives, Dr. McKay and I will join him and accompany you in the search for Colonel Sheppard and Dr. Teagan."

"Sounds like an excellent plan. So far I'm not picking anything up on the sensors."

Rodney's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean you're not picking anything up? How can that be possible unless they are dead or their subcutaneous transmitters were damaged?"

"Dr., I'm not exactly the one to ask. You're the scientist, after all. My only theory is that they may be in an area that is shielded from our sensors."

Rodney seemed to think it over for a split second. "I didn't pick up any readings of a shield to block them. I don't see how that would be possible, Major."

"There is also the possibility that they took shelter inside of a cave. The rock surrounding them could block them from our sensors."

Rodney rolled his eyes and looked like he wanted to hit himself. "Right. Well, we should check into that."

"That's what I was thinking."

"Right. Well- Oh, look at that! The jumper is here. We'll join you soon."

**SGA**

John grunted as he carried most of Alex's weight. He had a sprained knee and couldn't put weight on it. John had found a straight enough branch to make a splint for his broken arm and used scraps from his jacket to wrap around it. He'd used some scraps to try and stop the bleeding on the cut on his arm. It was a pretty deep cut, so he was worried about infection and loss of blood. Alex had a pretty decent cut on his arm too which he'd had to wrap up as well.

They'd been walking for only a short time, but it'd seemed like much longer. They'd both been silent other than talking when necessary about their injuries or which direction they should go.

John was hoping to keep it that way. He was in no mood to try to make Alex like him, not after arguing with him, losing focus on his surroundings, and nearly getting them both killed because of it. He blamed himself because he shouldn't have allowed himself to get distracted like that. He should have been paying more attention to what was going on. If he had been, they wouldn't have been that close to the edge when it gave away.

"Do you even know which way the Stargate is?"

John resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "When we arrived, the sun was coming up from just behind it. It hasn't been long enough for the sun to get too high into the sky. From the position of it, it's still low enough to direct us towards where the Stargate would be."

"Did you learn that trick at the Academy?"

"Yes, I did. I learned a lot of survival training. I've learned even more from Ronon and Teyla."

They were silent for another ten minutes as they continued in the direction they had originally set out on. It was slow going considering John had to help him walk, but they were making progress.

"Why are you dating her?"

John stopped and looked at him, making full eye contact. "Do you really want to do this now? The last time we had this conversation, we nearly died. Are you that eager for a repeat event?"

Alex huffed. "No, I'm not looking to risk my life again. I just want to know why you want to be with her."

John stared at him for a long minute, weighing his options. Finally, he replied, "Because I really like her. She's funny, caring, strong. She doesn't take crap from anyone. She's one of the smartest people I know, and that's big being on a base full of really smart people. I trust her with my life. She's the first person I really feel comfortable opening up to in a very long time. Sure, I can open up to the guys every now and then, but it doesn't take as much with her. She's easy to get along with. She's a lot of fun to be around. She makes life enjoyable. She has a really big heart. She gets what makes me who I am. I admire her and respect her."

John looked away from him and stared off into the trees. "I get that you want to protect her, Alex. I really do. You're her big brother and that's what you're supposed to do. I get that bad things have happened to her in the past. When she told me about Rick, I wanted to go kick his ass for laying a finger on her or accusing her of things that were out of her control. I wanted to go track down the man who had the nerve to sneak up behind her and rape her and make him pay for causing her harm. I get that you feel like it's your responsibility to make sure that never happens to her again. If I had a little sister who was raped and then beaten like that, I would probably feel the same way. But, Alex, you have to know that I would never do anything like that to her. I have way too much respect for her to ever lay a finger on her. You know me well enough to know that's true."

Alex stayed silent for a long moment. Deep down, he knew that John would never willingly hurt his sister. He was a good man and better than that. "I know. I just…I don't know. She's my little sister, John. I want what's best for me."

John nodded. "Have you ever stopped to think that maybe I'm what's best for her? Maybe I can give her a good life and make her happy? Maybe you should think about that for a while."

He started them moving again, hoping they would get to the stargate before the sun went down.

**SGA**

Nikki sat down on the bottom stair in the gate room and put her head in her hands. Elizabeth sat down next to her. They were silent for a long while, Elizabeth giving her time to sort through everything that was happening.

"Alex and I got into a fight earlier. He didn't approve of me being with John. He kept coming up with all these reasons why I shouldn't be with him. They were the stupidest reasons that just didn't make sense. It was like he was just grasping for straws, using anything he could think of to throw into the argument. I ended it and left. John found me a while later and I told him everything. He was pissed, rightfully so. I don't know what he was thinking asking for Alex to go on the mission. He said he wanted to make Alex see what a great guy he is, maybe change his mind. I knew it wasn't a good idea, but I let him do it anyway. I shouldn't have let them both go on that mission together."

Elizabeth rested her hand on Nikki's arm. "Nikki, this isn't your fault. John was the one who wanted him to go. You know as well as I do how stubborn that man is. No matter what you would've done, he wouldn't have changed his mind. That's just how John is."

Nikki lifted her head and turned to look at Elizabeth. "What if they don't come back? I can't lose them both at the same time. I need them both."

Elizabeth smiled softly. "How many times has John gotten himself into a sticky situation where it made everyone think he wasn't going to come back from it, but then somehow managed to get himself back? He is a very resourceful man full of intuition and an uncanny way of getting himself in and out of trouble."

Nikki chuckled, nodding. "You're right about that. That man…he's going to give me premature grey hairs one of these days."

Elizabeth's smile widened as she leaned back against the stairs, staring up at the gate. "I have been thinking that since he came back from Athos that first day we were here."

They shared a knowing look and then sat in silence, staring at the gate as if by sheer will it would bring John and Alex back.

"This is how it's always going to be, isn't it? He's never going to give up being on the lead team and helping people, getting into trouble all the time."

Elizabeth nodded slowly. "I don't think he will unless he's forced to. His heart is too big to sit back and let people suffer when he could do something about it."

Nikki smiled warmly as she thought about him. "He's such a great guy."

"Yes he is. You're a very lucky woman, Nikki."

Nikki looked over at her and her smile widened. "I know."

**SGA**

It had been an hour since they'd last spoken a word to each other. Alex had lost himself in his own thoughts while John was focusing on their surroundings, figuring out where to go, and keeping an eye out for any more threats. He already blamed himself for getting them into this mess in the first place, he didn't want to add any more accidents to the list. Nikki was already going to kill him if he got them back. First he demands Alex be on the team when he was still royally pissed at him, then he loses his focus on what's around him, then he allows them to be plummeted down a cliff into a river and almost killed.

_Nice move there, John. Way to impress your new girlfriend. You get her brother killed after demanding he be on the mission. That will impress her._

He was about to say something to Alex about picking up the pace a little when he suddenly got a really bad feeling. He stopped dead in his tracks and looked around. Alex looked at him confused. "Why are we stopping? Shouldn't we get to the gate before it gets dark?"

"Sh, Alex. Don't move or make a sound."

Alex shook his head, looking around. "I don't see or hear anything."

"Sh!"

John let go of Alex and took a step forward, spinning in a slow circle. His spidey senses were tingling and not in a good way. "Alex, we need to get out of here. I saw a cave just a few minutes back. We need to go. Now."

Alex looked around. "What are you talking about? I don't see anything wrong."

John returned to Alex's side. "We need to go, now. Don't argue with me."

Alex saw the determination in his eyes and also something else he couldn't quite place. "Okay…"

They started back the way they came, going as fast as they could. John was really cursing himself for only having a knife on him. His guns had been lost in both the mudslide and the fast current of the river. He'd tried hanging onto them, but he'd valued staying alive over hanging onto them.

He was about to say something along the lines of hurrying it up, but he heard a growl coming from behind them. He stopped and spun around, pushing Alex behind him. He ripped his knife out from its holster and faced the beast staring him down.

"Alex…don't move."

"Hadn't crossed my mind."

John eyed the creature in front of him. It seemed to be a cross between a mountain lion and a ram. It had the body and muscle of the lion with the horns of the ram. He wasn't liking his odds with only having a knife at his disposal.

The creature pawed the ground, flexing its claws. It stalked the area, its eyes never leaving John. It would creep closer, a growl rumbling through its chest, and then stop, anticipating John's movements.

John steadied the knife and held his ground. He watched the creature, fear trying to take hold of him, but he kept pushing it back down his and Alex's sakes. He couldn't afford to be afraid right now. He needed to be calm in order to get them out of this.

"Alex, when I tell you to, you run. You don't look back. You make a break for that cave and you do not stop until you get there. Do you understand me?"

"John, I can't just-."

"Yes you can and you will. At least one of us is going to make it out of this and back to Nikki. She needs you. You're her brother. Now do as I say."

Alex was about to protest, but the creature bowed forward, preparing to pounce. The growl was becoming louder, its teeth barred for them to see and fear.

John took a steady breath.  _Nikki, I'm sorry for this. I'm sorry I got your brother into this and I'm sorry I won't make it back. I'm so sorry._

The animal lunged towards John. As it was in midair, John had the sense to yell for Alex to run. And he did. Alex took off as fast as he could with a sprained knee. He was doing his best to ignore the pain, but he heard the strangled shouts of pain coming from behind him and chanced a look behind him. John was laying on the ground, the animal on top of him. They were wrestling, but it was winning. Alex could see its claws buried into John's shoulders and John's knife buried into its fur.

The creature wasn't giving up. John tried working himself free from being trapped underneath, but it was too strong for him. He pulled the knife free and re-angled. He jammed the knife up where he thought the heart might be. The creature howled in agony and pulled away from John, taking his knife with him. As the animal was moving, it sliced at John's abdomen, cutting him open in a long, deep cut. He yelled in pain, but tried to move away.

The animal only made it a step from John before it collapsed. John had estimated right and gotten its heart, or close enough to it that it didn't really matter. It was dead.

John looked down at himself and saw the blood running down his shoulders to pool on his abdomen. He was losing an extensive amount of blood already. Suddenly, Alex was by his side. "John, it's going to be okay. It's dead."

John looked up at him, confused. Alex seemed to see his confusion. "You're shaking and losing a lot of blood. You're going to be okay."

John felt his body growing colder by the second. He shook his head. He knew his odds. Help was nowhere in sight. They had no idea how far away the gate was. They had no radios, no rations, no water, and no medical supplies. He would need a transfusion in order to survive this, he knew that much. There was no hope for him, but he knew there was still hope for Alex.

"Alex, listen to me. You have to get yourself to the gate. Take the knife with you just in case. Hurry. You…you need to make it back."

Alex shook his head. "I'm not going to just leave you here to die."

John nodded, laying his head back on the ground. Alex was trying to put pressure on the wounds, but John knew it was useless. "Alex, there's no use. I need…a transfusion. I'm losing too much blood…You need to get yourself back. Nikki…she needs you."

Alex looked into John's eyes. "She needs you too, John. She needs us both."

John smiled faintly, letting his words wrap around him. "John? John! Damn it, keep your eyes open! John!"

John couldn't fight it anymore. He wanted desperately to see Nikki one last time, but he knew that was impossible. He allowed himself to be sucked down into the blackness. He allowed it to swallow him whole until there was nothing else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry...another cliffhanger...I couldn't help myself this time. Until next time!


	14. Brotherly Love Part Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part three of the Brotherly Love adventure. Did John survive? Will they get back to Atlantis?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Surprised at how quickly this is up? Me too! Haha. As soon as I posted the last chapter, I got started on it and I got it done within about an hour or so. I didn't want to post it back to back though. Also, I have the next FOUR chapters completely DONE and ready to be posted! This never happens, haha! So, I will be spacing them out a little, but for those of you who have read the original story, you'll have already read the next 4 chapters. Okay, let me rephrase...you have read VERSIONS of the next four chapters. They are mostly the same, but details have changed. So...enjoy!

**Chapter 14**

Alex checked for a pulse and let out a sigh of relief when he found John was still alive. He looked around, desperate to find something that might save his life. He needed to get John out of this. He'd just saved his life. Again.

His eyes were frantic, hovering in one spot for the briefest of moments before flitting to something else. There had to be something that could help him!

That's when he spotted it. It was the plant they had come in search for at the beginning of this hellish mission. It was the plant that helped you heal faster. He scrambled up and moved as quickly as he could, almost tripping over his feet in the process.

He looked around and found a big patch of the plant growing. He leaned over and pulled a handful out of the ground, mindful to take the roots with him. He searched until he found a smooth stone and then almost crumbled next to John's too-still form. He pulled out his flashlight and used the end of it to grind the leaves of the plant against the stone. He ground it until they dissolved into a paste. There was something about the plants that didn't make the leaves disintegrate when mashed. They turned into the paste he'd created instead.

He checked for a pulse once more, finding that it had slowed down to a very dangerous rate. He was seconds away from death and Alex knew it. Quickly, he applied the paste to John's injuries, making sure that he was coated with the stuff. He even applied some to the injury on John's arm and head, just for good measure. Once the paste was applied, he stood and gathered up more of the plant. He stuffed it into every pocket he could manage, making sure that if he needed to, he could apply more.

Alex limped over to the creature cautiously and pulled the knife free from its chest. He wiped the gore from the blade on the side of his leg and tucked it into his belt. His next challenge was going to be dragging John to the cave. They couldn't stay out in the open like this, not with the extent of his injuries. They needed to get to shelter and allow John to recover, or at least survive.

**SGA**

Ronon slammed his hand against the wall of the jumper. "Why haven't we found them yet?"

Rodney jumped at the loud noise that was so close to the back of his head. "I'm trying! Either something happened to their locators or they are dead because their signals aren't appearing! I've tried widening the search coordinates in case the river carried them farther that I thought, I've tried zeroing in on different sectors, hoping a narrowed scan of the area might help find a weakened signal. I've tried everything I can think of!"

Teyla rested her hand on Rodney's shoulder. "Rodney, you need to stay calm. It is not your fault. We will find them."

Evan frowned. They'd met up an hour ago and swapped out teams in the jumpers. Currently, all of SGA-1 was in his jumper while his team was in the other one. "Maybe it's time to contact Atlantis and let them know that we can't find anything. We can send out ground teams and try covering the area from the ground. Maybe they made it out of the river and are trying to make it back to the gate on foot."

Ronon eyes the major. "What about their locators? Or how we can't reach them on the radio?"

"You said they were pulled down in a mudslide and then dropped into a fast current. Their radios easily could have been washed away or broken during that. As for their locators…maybe they were somehow damaged in the fall. Isn't it a possibility they might be taking shelter somewhere that might block the signal?"

Rodney's eyes lit up. "Why didn't I think of that?! I'll search of caves or cliffs or whatever else could potentially shield their signals from reaching us."

Evan nodded. "In the meantime, I'm going to contact Atlantis and let them know our progress. I'm going to advise Dr. Weir send out the ground parties. Maybe Ronon would like to assist the ground search times? Might help since you're the best tracker we have."

Ronon nodded, leaning back. Teyla looked over at Evan. "I will also assist the search teams on the ground. I also have tracking skills that may be able to help find the Colonel and Dr. Teagan."

Evan nodded before heading back towards the gate. He dialed once they were close enough. "Atlantis, this is Major Lorne for a status update."

There was only a brief pause before Dr. Weir's voice came over the radio. "Go ahead, Major. Have you found anything?"

"Negative. McKay has tried everything attempting to boost locating their signals. Currently, he's trying to find any areas that have the potential of shielding their signals if they took shelter somewhere. I advise you send out teams to search the ground. They may have more luck in case their locators were damaged or are being shielded somehow. Ronon and Teyla want to assist in the ground searches."

"That's a good idea, Lorne. Ronon will lead one team and Teyla will lead another. I will get teams together and send them through shortly. Let me know if there is any change in the situation."

"Will do, ma'am."

"Good luck, everyone. Atlantis out."

Lorne looked over at the rest of them and frowned. This was going to be a very long night.

**SGA**

John felt like he'd been through hell. His body ached all over accompanied by pain in different areas. He forced his eyes open and found himself looking up at a cave ceiling. His eyebrows furrowed together. It took him a moment before the following day came crashing down around him and he realized where he was. He was still confused as to why he was in a cave in pain, though.

He turned his head to the side and found Alex staring into the flames of the fire that was a short distance away. John could feel the heat radiating off of it and he was even further from it. The fire was sitting just outside of the entrance to the cave, far enough the smoke wouldn't suffocate them.

"What happened?"

Alex's head snapped in John's direction and he could see relief plain as day spread across Alex's face. "You're awake. I was worried."

John tried to sit up, but the amount of pain in his abdomen made him think better of that and he laid back on the ground. "Alex, what happened? Last I remember I was fighting off that animal."

Alex nodded, moving closer to him. "You did. You were able to kill it by stabbing it in the heart. It just about killed you too. You lost a lot of blood."

John was starting to remember that now. "Then how am I alive? Why are we in a cave?"

"You passed out, but were still alive. I looked around trying to find something that might help and I saw the plant we'd originally came here for. I pulled some, ground it up into a paste, and applied it to your wounds. It was slow going for a while, but your heart rate started increasing to a more normal level. When it started to increase, I started dragging you here for shelter. I was as careful as I could be, but it was pretty difficult. I got you inside and then started a fire. I'm not trained in survival 101, but I know how to start a fire without lighter fluid and a match. That was a few hours ago. It's taken quite a while for your body to heal itself enough to survive without medical assistance. I was worried the plant might not be enough to keep you alive."

John stared at him for a long moment, letting everything sink in. "You found the plant? And used it to save my life?"

Alex nodded. "I know you told me to run and not look back or stop until I reached the cave, but…when I heard you yell in pain, I couldn't just leave. I looked back and saw that animal on top of you. There was nothing I could do but watch as it tried ripping you apart and as you killed it. I got back to you as fast as I could. You saved my life more than once. I couldn't leave you. Nikki would never forgive me if I made it back without you. I would never forgive myself either."

John was speechless. He didn't know what to say to him for a long minute. "I thought that's what you wanted, me to not go back to your sister."

Alex blew out a breath. "Before all of this happened? Yeah, that's how I felt in my stubbornness, but I never meant it. Ever since we got out of that river and you've kept me alive, forcing me to keep going, patching me up with whatever you could, risking your own life for mine…it made me re-evaluate everything. That's what I've been sitting here thinking about while you've been recovering."

The pain in his abdomen was subsiding enough for him to sit up. The plant really was doing miracles to his body. He sat up and leaned against the wall carefully, turning to fully face Alex, silently encouraging him to go on.

"I realized how much of an idiot I've been. It was never my place to say any of those things to her. I was talking out of my ass, hoping she would take my side just because I'm her brother, really. The truth is…I've been pretty miserable back on Atlantis, but part of that is my own fault. I've secluded myself from everyone and wallowed in my homesickness to the point where it swallowed me whole and took away my rational thinking. When she told me about the two of you, I should have been happy for her and for you, but I was so consumed with myself that all I could see was that I was losing her to you and I couldn't let that happen. But…sitting here, thinking over everything…I've realized that I'm not losing her to you. She's not going anywhere. She's gaining something great and something that has the potential to make her happy for the rest of her life and I have no place to destroy that or even want it to be destroyed. I'm her big brother. All I want is for her to be happy. And…at one point I considered you to be a good friend. I hope that we can get back to that because I want you to be happy too. You're a great guy, John. I want you to be with my sister. You both deserve each other."

John looked away, letting his words sink in. It was a lot to process. "You had no right to hurt her the way that you did, but…I know where you're coming from. You've obviously had a change of heart and I know that you can set things right when we get back to Atlantis. I'd like to be friends again and I will do everything in my power to make your sister happy. I really care about her."

Alex smiled. "I know. I can see it every time you talk about her. She really cares about you too, that much is obvious. I really am happy for you guys."

John looked back at him and smiled crookedly. "When we get back you should go to more of the events they have. It'll help you get your mind off everything and you can come have fun with all of us again. Maybe you'll even meet someone when you stay out of your lab long enough."

Alex chuckled, nodding his head. "You're right. I did have my eye on someone, so who knows. Maybe I can work towards that if we get back."

John shook his head. "It's not if we get back. It's when. When the sun comes up, we're going to head towards the gate again. We've got a lot of ground to cover. My best guess is that they started out with a jumper searching for us from the sky. If they couldn't locate us using our signals, they will send out search teams on the ground for a more thorough search, even if they think they'll be looking for bodies to recover. They're not going to stop looking until they're sure there's nothing left to search for. With any luck, we'll run into one of the search teams tomorrow or we'll reach the gate ourselves. We'll make it back."

Alex nodded, scooting away to get comfortable on the ground near the fire. "You're right. There's no room for negativity out here on an unknown planet."

John nodded, moving closer to the fire himself, but moving so that he was in view of the surroundings outside the cave. "I'll keep watch. You get some sleep since we'll be making up for lost time tomorrow. Did you use that paste on yourself?"

Alex nodded around a yawn that escaped. "Yeah, I grabbed extra so I figured it would be a good idea to use it myself since we're still stranded out here."

"Good idea. Now get some sleep. Oh, and, Alex? Thanks for saving my life."

John put the fire out and looked around, checking for any disturbances. His knife was tucked safely back into the sheath on his belt and he was ready to get the hell off this planet.

He turned and looked over at Alex. "Ready?"

"More than ever."

John smirked and nodded. "Same here. Let's get going. Hopefully we don't run into any more of those creatures. We should grab some more of that plant when we find some, bring as much as we can back to Atlantis."

They started on their way back to the gate. When they found the patch, they picked some of the plant, stuffing it into their pockets. Alex even grabbed a few more handfuls to carry. If he had to, he could just drop it to defend himself, but since he didn't have a weapon, he figured he may as well put his hands to good use.

It took them another three hours of walking after they passed the spot where they'd been attacked the day previous before John heard a noise and came to a stop. He looked around, searching for the source of the noise. By this point, Alex knew to be quiet if John stopped suddenly like that.

John took a few steps forward, searching the trees. Suddenly, he spotted movement.

He ducked behind a tree, pulling Alex with him. Thankfully it was big enough for the two of them to hide behind it.

Alex looked at John. "What is it?"

"There's movement over there. I didn't wait to see what it was just in case it was another one of those animals."

He pulled the knife from its sheath and peered around the tree. He looked in the direction he'd seen the movement. His eyes widened. "I can't believe it."

"What? What do you see?"

John stepped out from behind the tree with a smile on his face. "It's Ronon."

**SGA**

When Ronon had seen John making his way towards him, crooked grin plastered to his face, he'd immediately radioed to the jumper to let them know he'd been found. John was filthy, covered in dirt, sweat, blood, and some kind of paste. His clothes were ripped and trashed, but he was alive.

Ronon had shortened the distance between them and wrapped John in a tight embrace that only lasted a couple of moments. When he pulled back, there was a smile on Ronon's face. "I thought you were dead."

John smirked. "Well, if it's any consolation, I did too." He turned around. "Alex! Everything's good!"

Alex stepped out from behind the tree and smiled, completely relieved they'd been found. He quickly caught up with them and looked up at the tall man who'd found them.

Ronon nodded in his direction before looking back at John. "Jumper's gonna land in a small clearing just five minutes from here."

He nodded. "Sounds good. I'm all for a lift back. We've had quite the journey and I'd rather not risk running into any more of those animals."

Ronon's brow rose as they started in the direction of the clearing. "Animals?"

John nodded. "It was a cross between a mountain lion and a ram. Pretty strong, but not undefeatable."

Ronon took in the rips in John's shirt and the blood that seemed to coat all of his clothing. "Looks like you put up one hell of a fight."

John snorted. "Something like that. I'm just glad I didn't lose my knife in that damn river. That's all I have on me."

They walked in silence the rest of the way to the clearing. John couldn't help the smile that spread across his face as the jumper came into sight and landed a few feet from them. The back hatch lowered and Teyla, Rodney, and Evan emerged. Evan's face was full of relief as were the others' faces. Teyla exited the jumper and embraced John in a tight hug that lasted longer than Ronon's had. "I am very glad to see you are okay, John. We were very worried."

McKay appeared next to them as Teyla stepped back. "Sheppard, you nearly gave me a heart attack! Not to mention Elizabeth and Nikki…They're practically besides themselves with worry."

John frowned. "Sorry about that. It was my fault. I shouldn't have let myself get distracted like that."

Alex shook his head. "No, actually it's my fault. I started the whole thing and we wouldn't be in this mess if it hadn't been for me getting into that fight with Nikki."

John looked over at Alex and smiled. "You just can't lose, can you? You have to win."

Alex rolled his eyes. "Yes, John, because I am winning almost dying several times, almost getting eaten, almost losing you…This whole situation is a win-win for me."

John chuckled and looked at the confused looks from his team. "What do you say we get back home before something else happens?"

Teyla smiled. "I like that idea, John."

They all climbed back into the jumper, John sitting in the back letting Evan pilot them home. It was a short distance from the clearing to the gate. Turns out they had made quite the journey and were only a couple of hours walk to the gate.

Evan radioed Atlantis and let them know they had found them and were coming home. The search teams were called back to the gate and would make it through in their own time. Evan didn't tell them in what state John and Alex had been found. Of course, they were too relieved to know they had been found to ask.

The jumper made it through the gate and up to the jumper bay. Once it landed, the hatch lowered and the team exited together. John slowed, telling them to go ahead of him. He walked over to Lorne who was just exiting.

Evan looked at him with a smile. "I'm really glad you're okay, John. You had all of us worried."

John nodded, looking down for a moment. "Yeah, I had me worried too. I wasn't sure how I was going to get us out of that one, but it was Alex who saved my ass in the end."

Evan's eyes widened. "Really? I heard about the argument in the mess hall and then the argument back on that planet."

John nodded. "Yeah. We had a lot of time together to work it out. Enough near death experiences will bring the best out of anyone."

They chuckled together and moved to follow the team. The came around one of the jumpers in time to see Nikki appear in the jumper bay and practically fall into her brother's arms. She was crying.

"Alex! I'm so glad you're okay!"

Alex stiffened for a brief moment before wrapping his arms around his sister and holding on tight. John stopped a short distance away, giving them their space, but knowing he couldn't leave without her.

"Nikki, I'm so sorry about everything. I was wrong. I know that now. I hope that you can forgive me. I want you to be happy and I want you to be with John. You two are perfect for each other."

Nikki pulled back and smiled at her brother. "Of course I forgive you, Alex. You're my big brother."

She spotted John standing a little ways behind him and Alex could see how badly she wanted to run into his arms. He smiled at her and stepped away. "If you want to talk more, come find me. I'm sure I'll be stuck in the infirmary for a day with everything that happened. Go get him."

She smiled and kissed her brother on the cheek before running into John's arms. He wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her shoulder. The team had stopped in the entrance to the jumper bay when she had arrived and seen the whole thing. They smiled at each other and left, giving the couple a moment of privacy.

Nikki held on to him as tight as she dared. "I thought you were dead, John. I thought you were never coming back."

He nodded. "I'm so sorry, Nikki. I should never have let myself get distracted like that off-world. I put myself and everyone else in danger because of it. I hope you can forgive me for that."

She pulled back a fraction and looked up at him. "Of course I forgive you, John. You both made it back alive and okay. You got my brother back for me. And you're here. That's all I could ever have asked for."

John smiled down at her. "There was a moment back there when I thought I wasn't going to make it. All I could think about was that I was never going to see you again. That's all I wanted. I wanted to see you one last time and tell you how sorry I was."

Nikki leaned up and pressed her lips against his softly. "You made it back though. You're home and you're safe. I don't care what anyone says, you're not going anywhere for a little while, okay?"

John chuckled, pressing his lips back against hers. "That's fine with me. I could use a little down time. I need to make it up to you for what happened, after all."

Nikki giggled, rolling her eyes. "How about we go get you checked out, beg Carson to allow you to leave, saying I'll keep an eye on you and alert him if anything is wrong. You can go take a shower and clean yourself up. And then you can start making it up to me."

John's smile grew into his flyboy smile. "I like that idea."

They walked with their arms around each other to the infirmary, happy that they were both safe, okay, and together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Until next time.


	15. It's Dave Part One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dave is in an accident and John is called to return home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the first installment to the next adventure!! Enjoy!

**Chapter 15**

Things were going smoothly on Atlantis. There was only the occasional kidnapping or Wraith attack. Jennifer was back from making her rounds on different planets, trying to help those who had come into contact with the Hoffan drug.

Ronon and Amelia had recently announced their newfound relationship. Teyla had finally confessed to John of her new relationship with Kanaan, an Athosian who was on New Athos. She had recently found out she was pregnant with his child and that he was coming to live on Atlantis with her.

John looked around at his friends and smiled. Everything was going well for them. Things were going quite well for himself as well. After everything with Alex, things were going back to normal with Nikki and he couldn’t be happier. After getting back from that planet, Alex had decided to take a couple of weeks off and visit his parents back home. Nikki hadn’t been that happy finally getting her brother back after him almost dying and then him leaving for two weeks, but she had understood his need to go home for a little while.

His radio crackled, snapping him out of his thoughts. “Weir to Sheppard. Come in.” He reached up and hit his com. “Sheppard here.” His teammates and Nikki looked up from their conversation at his sudden words. They were all sitting around a table in the mess hall. “I just talked to General O’Neill during the weekly dial-in with Earth. Pack your bags. You leave for Earth in one hour.”

“Why? Did something happen?” His mind instantly flew to his brother, Dave. “It’s your brother, John. All I was told was that he was in some kind of accident and that you were needed immediately. Will anyone be accompanying you?”

He sat up straighter at the thought of his brother being hurt or possibly dying. “Um…I don’t know. I’ll get back to you. Sheppard out.”

He stood up and moved towards the door, not even hearing his friends calling his name.

Nikki jumped up and ran after him. She managed to catch up to him and stop him before he left the mess hall. She stood in front of him blocking his path. “John, what’s wrong? What happened?”

He looked up at her with worry very clear in his eyes and also something else she couldn’t put a name to. “I’m being sent back to Earth. There was some kind of accident…” He shook his head slightly. “It’s Dave.”

Her lips parted slightly and her eyes widened a little. She pulled him into a hug and whispered in his ear, “I’m so sorry. I’ll go with you if you want me to.” All he could do was nod his head and then moved to leave the mess hall.

Before she left to pack, she returned to the table to let their friends know what was going on. “John’s being sent back to Earth. There some was kind of accident involving his brother. That’s all I know, but I’m going with him.”

They nodded and Ronon spoke up before she walked away. “Make sure he’s okay.”

She nodded. “I will.”

**SGA**

One hour later, John and Nikki were standing in the gate room waiting for the gate to be dialed. Elizabeth joined them and stepped in front of John. “Don’t worry about Atlantis. We’ll take good care of her while you’re gone. Just take care of what you need to take care of, okay?” He nodded. “Will do. If you need anything, let General O’Neill know and he’ll contact us.”

She nodded before turning to Nikki. “Take care of him for us. We need our Colonel back in one piece.”

Nikki nodded and gave a small smile before taking John’s hand and squeezing it. He looked down at her and tried to return the smile, but it came out as more of a grimace. He was too worried about the lack of details.

She squeezed his hand once more, giving him some reassurance that it would be okay. The gate started to dial and John looked up at the balcony to see his team standing there. Rodney gave a small wave, Ronon nodded, and Teyla gave him a small, encouraging smile. He nodded his thanks to all of them and then stepped through the gate with Nikki by his side.

They stepped through and found General O’Neill waiting for them at the bottom of the ramp. “Colonel.” He nodded to John. John nodded back. “General.” Jack turned to Nikki. “Well, I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m General Jack O’Neill.” He extended his hand towards her when they reached the bottom of the ramp.

She shook his hand. “Dr. Nikki Teagan.”

“So, _you’re_ the infamous Dr. Teagan. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Nikki bit her lip. “I hope that’s a good thing, sir.”

Jack chuckled, “Of course. Anyways, I wish I could give you more details about your brother, Sheppard. I would if I had any. All I know is that he’s at St. Rose Hospital in Hayward, CA. I already have a car waiting up top to take you to your hotel and then to the hospital. They have cell phones for both of you.”

John turned to Jack. “Thank you, sir.”

“It’s not a problem. Just go make sure your brother’s okay. Don’t worry about anything. Anyone has a problem with either of you being back, I’ll deal with it. If either of you need anything, my number has been programmed into both phones.” They nodded as they walked through the SGC. Cameron Mitchell walked around the corner and walked right into Sheppard.

“Whoah! Sorry about that, Sheppard. I didn’t know you were back.” From the look on his face, it wasn’t under good circumstances. John nodded and glanced over at Nikki.

“Mitchell, Dr. Nikki Teagan.” He reached up to shake her hand.

Nikki reached up and shook the man’s hand. “Nikki, this is Colonel Cameron Mitchell.” She gave him a small smile. “It’s nice to meet you.”

He smiled as well. “Likewise. You must be pretty special to get to come back with him if this is an unofficial visit.”

John looked at him. “What?”

Cam nodded. “Yeah, I mean…who brings a friend back on vacation? A woman friend even.”

Sheppard rolled his eyes and turned to look at Jack. “Well, we need to get you two to the surface. The car’s waiting.” As they started forward, John glanced over his shoulder. “See you around, Cam.”

He nodded. “Yeah, maybe I’ll see you when you head back.”

They made their way to the surface and John realized Jack hadn’t gotten them a car. He had gotten them a short limo. He rolled his eyes, but turned and shook the man’s hand before climbing into the car after Nikki.

As soon as the door was closed, she slid closer to him, entwined her fingers with his, and then rested her head on his shoulder. She was trying to give him as much comfort without saying anything. That’s how Sheppard liked it. He was a man who preferred more action than words.

They stayed silent the entire ride to their hotel. She had fallen asleep on his shoulder, so it hadn’t been hard to avoid any kind of conversation. Sleep was impossible for him. He was far too worried to get any sleep.

They got to the hotel and checked in. Jack had gotten them a small suite, much to his surprise. He probably expected them to be back for some time and figured they’d want some comfort instead of a small hotel room.

They walked up to their room and set down their bags. John sat down on the bed and put his head in his hands. Nikki sat down beside him and wrapped an arm around his waist. He leaned towards her and rested his head on her shoulder.  “I’m just warning you, my family is nuts. Just be grateful my dad isn’t here.”

She rubbed his back trying to ease some of his tension. “Don’t worry about me. I’m tough. I can handle anything, remember?” He smirked and then sat up. He turned to look at her. “Thanks for coming with me. You didn’t have to.”

She moved a piece of his hair that had fallen into his eyes. “I know, but I wanted to. That’s what girlfriends are for, right?” She smiled, trying to make him feel a little better. There was no way she’d even think about not joining him. She knew it was already going to be hard on him and even harder if he’d had to make the trip alone.

He looked down at his hands. “You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if Nancy’s there. She always was…obsessive that way. She had more of a hand in my family than I ever did.”

Nikki’s smile faltered slightly at the thought of running into his ex-wife, but she recovered quickly. “Your ex isn’t any match for me. I bet I could take her down.”

He looked up at her, an eyebrow raised. “You’ve never met her.”

She nodded, her smile widening. “I know, but…I just can’t imagine anyone who could give up a man like you…I can’t imagine them being anything but a big pansy.”

A small smile came to his lips and his eyes crinkled the way she loved. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers. When he pulled back after a minute, he looked deep into her eyes. “Thanks.”

“There’s no need to thank me. If you want, I can even kick some ex-wife ass while we’re here.”

He chuckled and leaned back in for another kiss. After a moment, it become more than just a kiss. It gained intensity quickly, pulling both of their minds away from the present and the reason why they were back on Earth. Nikki pushed him back gently and rolled so that she was laying on top of him, her knees on either side of his thighs. Her fingers made their way up to tangle in his wild hair. They stayed that way for a while, roaming each other’s mouths.

John pulled back for a moment and smiled. “So…we have a couple of hours. What do you say we use it wisely?”

Nikki quirked an eyebrow. “Oh? And how do you suggest we do that?”

“Oh, I have a few ideas.”

He pulled her head down and their lips met again. Soon the kiss turned quite passionate and her hands started to roam. He rolled them over so that he was on top. Her hands slipped under his button-down shirt that was untucked like he always wore it.

Her hands started to move upwards, taking his shirt with them. He smiled through their kiss. He pulled back and looked at her. “Need any help there?” He had a mischievous look on his face.

She giggled and nodded. He quickly unbuttoned his shirt and slid it off. Nikki sat up and pulled her shirt off as well. She pulled him back down on top of her and found his lips. They explored each other’s upper bodies with their hands for a few minutes. Then John started trailing kisses down her neck. He found her sensitive spot and stopped when she moaned slightly. He teased her there with his tongue and then continued trailing his kisses down. He made a trail all the way down to her belly button, only stopping momentarily to nibble on one of her nipples, before he stopped and moved back up to her lips. Her hands reached lower and started to undo his pants. He kicked off his boots and then followed her lead by undoing hers as well.

He pulled them into a sitting position and she starting sliding down his pants. Soon he was only in his boxers. She rolled them over so she was on top. He slid hers down as well, leaving her in only her bra and panties.

They continued undressing each other until there was nothing left. Nikki pushed John back so he was laying on his back. She straddled his hips, leaned forward, and found his lips. She made a trail of her own going down his neck, down his chest, and then stopped right before she got lower. She looked up at him with a sassy look in her eyes.

He smiled and rubbed his hand up one of her arms. She took that as a good sign and then moved lower. For a couple of minutes, all she did was tease him. He groaned. “You are such a tease…” She smirked and then gave him what he wanted. She brought him right to the edge of his orgasm and then brought him right back before he peaked. He looked down at her again. “That is so not fair.”

She laughed and moved forward to join her lips with his. He wrapped his arms around her back and twisted, making them roll so she was on her back.

He made another trail down to her bellybutton, smirked, and then continued lower. He did the same thing she did. He teased for a while until she couldn’t take it anymore and finally gave her what she wanted. If her moans of pleasure were anything to go by, he was doing pretty well.

Then right before she peaked, he brought her back down just as she had done. He made a trail going back up to her neck and started sucking on her sensitive spot, making her moan again. “John, you are so evil.” He chuckled against her neck and moved his lips to hers.

After a minute of passionate kissing, he positioned himself above her, silently asking for permission. She wrapped her legs around his waist and he took that as a yes.

They made love to each other quite passionately. John wanted to take it slow and easy for a while and enjoy it. Until Nikki kicked things up a notch and it got intense.

A while later, John rolled off of her and pulled her into his side. She curled next to him and rested her head on his shoulder. With her free hand, she played with his chest hair.

She looked up at John, a soft smile playing at her lips. “You think Rodney’s gotten kidnapped yet?”

He snorted, not expecting that. “Well…I doubt Elizabeth is going to send them off world while I’m gone, but knowing Rodney? There’s a good chance.”

After a while, John looked at the clock and almost groaned. It was time to get back to reality. The car would be there in ten minutes to pick them up. He sat up and started getting dressed. Nikki looked over at the clock and understood why. She moved to get her own clothes as well.

They got dressed and then made their way down to the lobby to wait for their car. John had his arm around her shoulders and she had her arm around his waist. They saw their car pull up and made their way outside.

**SGA**

John walked into the hospital with Nikki right behind him. He made his way to the receptionist’s desk and asked where his brother was. Nikki stayed a couple feet behind him, giving him space. She took in her surroundings and noticed a dark-haired woman look up at the sound of John’s voice and then make her way over to them.

 Nikki watched as she walked right up to John. He turned to look at who had walked up to him and she saw the look of half-surprise on his face. Then something else flashed in his eyes.

“Nancy. What are you doing here?”

“I could say the same about you, John.”

His eyes narrowed. “I’m here for my brother.”

She smirked and shook her head. “That’s a first. So am I, actually. I was waiting for Becca, his wife, to come down.”

“I know who his wife is, thank you very much. You’re not in this family anymore, Nancy. So why are you really here?”

Nikki could feel the tension rippling through the air. “Like I said, I’m here to see Dave. I never thought you’d show.”

He ground his teeth together, but turned and looked at Nikki. She stepped to his side. “Come on, we need to get up there.” Nancy grabbed his arm before he could leave.

“Wait, who is your little friend here?”

They turned back to her, but before he could say anything, she jumped into the conversation. “I’m Dr. Nikki Teagan. And you are…?”

Nancy smirked and sized Nikki up. “I’m his ex-wife, Nancy.”

Nikki smiled and slightly narrowed her eyes. “Well, it was nice meeting you.” Nikki turned away, but Nancy stopped them again.

“So, is she your little charity case or just your bedroom buddy?”

John’s fists clenched. “She’s my girlfriend, Nancy. Now what’s it to you?”

Nancy smiled and looked at Nikki. “So what’s it like spending countless nights alone never knowing where he is. Or when he is home he can’t talk about it so his entire life is one big secret. And what about all of his mistakes? What’s that like?”

Nikki was really getting pissed. “We don’t spend countless nights alone. Those nights are few and far between. We spend a lot of time together. As for his secrets? He doesn’t have to keep very many. You see, I’m one of the head scientists on the base where he’s the commanding military officer, so we get to go on a lot of missions together. And mistakes? Honey, that’s where you’re wrong. This man saves lives every day while you’re probably sitting on your ass getting a fake tan and mani pedi and drinking some fruity little girl drink. You obviously don’t know this man as well as you thought you did.” She smiled her sweetest smile, “It was nice meeting you. Have a nice day!” Then turned around and walked away leaving Nancy standing there wide-eyed with her mouth hanging open and sputtering.

John caught up to her and looked down at her with the biggest smile on his face. “That was awesome. You are the most amazing woman ever.”

She smiled up at him. “I told you I’m tough and can handle anything.”

His smile got wider and he reached down and entwined his fingers with hers. She just kept amazing him.

They reached the level his brother was on and quickly found the right room. He paused at the entrance and looked in at his brother lying motionless and hooked up to machines. He wasn’t even breathing on his own. There was a tube running down his throat. He’d never seen his brother look so…vulnerable.

Becca looked up at the doorway and saw John standing there. She stood up and made her way over to him. “John, it’s good to see you.” She pulled him into a hug and he hugged her back. “Becca, what happened? All I was told was there was some accident.”

Her eyes were sad, her shoulders drooping a little, and he could tell she hadn’t slept much. She motioned into the room and he walked in with Nikki right behind him.

They walked to the other side of the room. John and Nikki sat down on the little couch and Becca pulled up the chair. “Aren’t you going to introduce us, John?” She gave a small smile.

John looked up, “Oh, right, sorry. Becca, this is my girlfriend, Dr. Nikki Teagan. She’s a scientist on the base where I’m stationed.” Nikki reached out her hand towards Becca. “Nikki, this is my sister-in-law, Becca Sheppard.” Nikki gave her a small smile as they shook hands. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m sorry it’s under these circumstances though.”

Becca nodded and looked over at her husband lying motionless on the bed. She turned back to John. “The other morning he left for work like usual. Everything was normal. He left at the same time he does every morning. After he left, I took the kids to school, picked up some groceries and by the time I got home, there was a message on the answering machine. It was from the hospital telling me that my husband was in an accident and to call them back. So, I did. They told me he had been driving down the interstate when a semi lost control. Dave was between the semi and the railing. He got smashed between. The car was totaled and Dave had to have immediate surgery. They said during the surgery, he slipped into a coma. They have no idea if he’ll ever wake up.” She tried to stop a small sob from escaping and failed. She put her head in her hands and cried silently. John got up, knelt in front of her and pulled her into his arms. He rubbed circles into her back, trying to calm her. When she stopped crying, he pulled back slightly.

“Who’s the doctor taking care of him?” She wracked her brain for a minute before looking up at him. “Dr. Heath.” John nodded and stood up. He turned to look at Nikki and she nodded.

He left the room and walked over to the nurse’s station. A nurse looked up as he approached. “Yes? Can I help you?”

“Yes, is there a Dr. Heath here?” She looked down at her charts and nodded. “He should be coming back from supper any time now. What is it regarding?”

He looked down at his watch for a second and then back up at her. “I need to speak with him about my brother, Dave Sheppard.” She nodded and grabbed a pen and a piece of paper. “Okay, and what’s your name?”

“John Sheppard.”

She scribbled down his name and Dave’s room number on the piece of paper and looked back up at him. “Okay, I’ll let him know when he comes up to go talk to you.”

He smiled. “Thanks.” She nodded and watched him walk back into the room he had walked out of. Another nurse walked over to her. “Man, he was cute. You should get his number.” She rolled her eyes and looked down on the piece of paper. “His brother is in bad shape. I highly doubt he’ll be in the mood to give out his number to a random nurse.”

The woman rolled her eyes as well. “Exactly. He’s vulnerable. Take advantage of it. You never know, you may just have some fun.” She winked at the first nurse and walked away. She shook her head and looked up when the elevator doors opened and Dr. Heath walked out.

She handed him the piece of paper and told him that Dave Sheppard’s brother was here and had asked to speak with him. He nodded and moved towards Dave’s room. He stuck his head in and took in the newcomers. The man practically shouted military, except for his hair. Maybe ex-military? “Are you John Sheppard?” John’s head snapped up. He stood up and moved towards the door.

They exited the room and moved to the man’s office to have a more private discussion. Dr. Heath closed the door and turned to John. He stuck his hand out towards him and John shook it. “I’m John Sheppard. Dave’s brother. I’m stationed out of the country and news travels slowly. I got here as soon as I could.” Dr. Heath nodded and sat down behind his desk, gesturing for John to sit as well.

“I had a feeling that was the case. Now, Dave suffered a massive blow to the head. Right now, we’re not sure if it’s caused brain damage or not. It’s hard to tell since he’s in a coma. We’re not even sure if he’ll ever wake up. There’s nothing I can do for him besides keeping a breathing tube in his throat and giving him fluids. It’s all up to him.” John nodded and looked down at his hands. That’s when he had an idea. He looked back up at Dr. Heath. “Thank you. I need to be getting back to my family now.” He nodded and watched as John left the office, closing the door behind him.

John walked to the waiting area and pulled out his cell phone. He dialed Jack’s number and hoped he could pull this one off. It was to save his brother’s life, afterall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Until next time.


	16. Dave Part Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I know it's been a few days since I posted the first part in the Dave adventure, but I thought it would possibly grab a few extra readers with a little time? That's what I'm hoping for anyway. This story isn't bringing in as many readers as I'd hoped and it's not bringing in ANY reviews...could you guys just take a minute, half a minute, minute and a half of your time when you're done with a chapter, shoot me a review and tell me what you think? It would seriously mean a lot. I haven't gotten a review on this story in a while and it could really boost the creativity levels. Enjoy!!

**Chapter 16**

Jack snapped the phone shut. It looked like he had a few calls to make. He moved through the SGC and into General Landry’s office and closed the door. Hank looked up. “Hank. I need a favor.”

A little while later, Jack left his office and made his way to the control room. When he walked in, he looked at Sam Carter sitting in front of one of the computers. “Sam, dial Atlantis.”

She turned and looked at him. She saw the seriousness in his eyes and wondered what was going on. She nodded and dialed Atlantis.

On the other side of the wormhole, Chuck was yelling for Dr. Weir. “Unscheduled gate activation!” Elizabeth walked into the control room from her office. “It’s the SGC, ma’am.” She nodded. “Open a channel.”

He nodded and pointed to her when the line was open. “This is Dr. Weir.” General O’Neill’s voice came over the radio. “General Jack O’Neill here. I need to speak with Drs. Carson Beckett and Jennifer Keller.” Elizabeth turned around and nodded to Chuck to have them come to the control room immediately. He nodded and informed them. “They’re on their way. Is something wrong, General?”

He sighed. “Actually, yes. That’s why I need to speak with the Drs.” She nodded and turned to see them walk into the room. “Here they are.”

Carson walked over to the control panel with Jennifer and Rodney right behind him. “This is Dr. Beckett. What can I do for you, General?”

“I called to inform you that yourself and Dr. Keller need to come through the wormhole. Immediately. You’ll only be gone for a few hours.” Jennifer and Carson exchanged looks. She stepped up next to Carson and spoke up. “If you don’t mind me asking, sir, but why are we going back to Earth?”

There was a pause before he answered. “You will be accompanying me to St. Rose Hospital where a man named Dave Sheppard is being treated. I’ll do the business talk while you do the medical talk. We’ll be taking him with us and returning to Atlantis with Colonel Sheppard and Dr. Teagan.”

They all looked at each other. Rodney looked up. “That’s Sheppard’s brother.” Jack’s voice came over the radio again. “Is that McKay?”

“Yes, General. Dr. McKay here.”

“Oh. But yes, that is the Colonel’s brother. I received a call from him a few minutes ago. There’s nothing the doctors on Earth can do for him and he was hoping Beckett and Keller would be able to do more. I already approved it with Landry. So, I’ll see you both in a few minutes. Well, I’ll see the three of you. McKay can come too. O’Neill out.”

Elizabeth looked at her senior staff members and nodded. “Go. Bring them back safely.” They nodded and the three moved down the stairs to the gate room and walked through the gate.

**SGA**

John walked back into Dave’s room. He walked over and sat on the couch. He took Becca’s hands in his and looked directly into her eyes. “Becca, you need to listen to me, okay?”

She nodded hesitantly. “I just spoke to Dr. Heath and he said there’s nothing more he can do. But.” He looked at Nikki and then back at Becca. “I made a call to a good friend of mine who made another call to the base where I’m stationed.” Her eyebrows scrunched together. “I don’t understand. Isn’t it just a military base? How would a military base be able to help Dave?”

John took a deep breath. “I’m not stationed on an ordinary military base. Before I can tell you more, you have to promise me that you won’t tell anyone about anything I’m about to tell you. You still don’t have security clearance, but that’s being processed as we speak.”

She looked between Nikki and John. She slowly nodded. “Becca, I’m the commanding military officer in a place called Atlantis. I’m sure you’ve heard of the Lost City of Atlantis?” She nodded. “That’s the one. We’re on a science expedition and I’m in charge of everyone’s safety. I would never ask this if I thought there wasn’t a chance it might help Dave.”

“John, I don’t understand.” He nodded and looked down for a second and then back up at her. “There are doctors on Atlantis who are very experienced and have more technology than the doctors have here. Dave has a better chance of surviving there than he does here. You have to trust me on this. I’m asking for both of you to come to Atlantis with us. He’ll receive the best care possible in two galaxies.”

She smiled at what she thought was his joke. She turned and looked at Dave. She watched as his chest slowly moved up and down. Then looked at the tube that was the only thing keeping her husband breathing, at all the wires and iv’s. She looked back at John. “Okay. We’ll go.”

He breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. Because they’re on their way here now. Two of my personal friends who are doctors will be accompanying General O’Neill who will talk to the hospital about releasing Dave into their care. He’ll tell them he’s being transferred to a military hospital since I’m in the military. No one can know where he’s really going, okay?”

She nodded. John looked at Nikki and silently asked her to explain the rest. She nodded and turned to look at Becca. “Becca, there are some things you need to know before General O’Neill gets here. Are you up to discussing it right now?” She looked at the woman John seemed to trust. She looked at John and he nodded. She turned back to Nikki. “Yes, I’m ready.”

“Atlantis isn’t on Earth. It’s in another galaxy. We’ll be getting there by a device called a stargate. It opens a portal for you to step through and reach your destination. With this device, you can go to other planets, solar systems, and galaxies. All it is, is a round, blue surface that looks a lot like a puddle of water. All you have to do is step through it. It doesn’t hurt. I’ve stepped through it plenty of times, as has John.”

Becca turned to look at John, her eyes wide. “It’s true, Becca. It doesn’t hurt at all, I promise. It’s perfectly safe.” _Unless there’s a solar flare in the area, then you may be sent back or forward in time…_

He squeezed her hands. “I’ll be right there with you the entire time. The people on Atlantis are very nice and they’ll help us. They’ll help Dave as best as they can. Dr. Beckett and Dr. Keller have an exceptional team. You have my word that he’ll be in good hands.”

She nodded. “Okay. What about the kids? I can’t just leave them here...”

John thought for a moment. “How old are they?”

“The oldest is fifteen and the youngest is twelve.” John nodded and looked at Nikki. “You think Teyla would mind?”

She shook her head and smiled. “You know Teyla. She never minds. And plus, she’s expecting a child of her own. She’d probably love to watch them.”

He nodded and looked back at Becca. “There’s a woman named Teyla Emmagen. She’s a member on my team and I’ve known her since the first day we found Atlantis. She’s from a planet in the same galaxy that Atlantis is in. She’s a very kind and caring woman. She’s the leader of her people and would be more than happy to watch them while we’re on Atlantis.”

“So, will she be coming here or are we taking them with us and she’ll watch them there?”

John thought for a moment. He really didn’t want to push his luck with the SGC, but it was Dave’s kids. “They’ll be coming with us. You’ll all have to sign a non-disclosure statement and I’ll have to get them security clearance as well.” She nodded. “Okay. Let’s do this.” John nodded and leaned back against the couch.

He pulled his cell phone from his pocket. He decided to text the general instead of calling again. He asked him to get security clearances for the two kids as well. He explained that they were too young to just be left at home by themselves, but old enough to understand why they couldn’t talk about Atlantis when they returned to Earth.

They spent the next few hours waiting for their friends to get there. They didn’t really do much. John’s face was a little pale and Nikki didn’t like that look. She volunteered to go down to the cafeteria and get them all some food. Becca decided to join her to learn more about her brother-in-law’s girlfriend.

They walked down to the cafeteria in silence. They were originally going to take all the food back up to the room, but Becca had another idea. “Why don’t we give John a few more minutes alone with Dave. He’s a very private person and he could probably use the alone time right now.”

Nikki nodded and they headed over to a table with their food. They sat down and started eating in silence. Becca was the first to break it. “So, tell me about you. I want to know more about the woman who’s stolen my brother-in-law’s heart.” She looked up at Nikki with a smile on her face. Nikki blushed slightly and smiled. “I’m one of the head scientists on the base. I also have a medical degree and my father was in the military, so he practically put my brother and I through boot camp while we were growing up.”

Becca smiled. “Ah, so you’re a triple threat out there.” Nikki smiled and looked down at her coffee. “Yeah, that’s what John says. I’m really lucky to have him in my life.” She looked up at Becca who looked thrilled. “You seem like a really wonderful woman. And perfect for John. I’ve noticed that it seems like you can look right through all those walls he puts up around himself. And he lowers them for you. You two must really care about each other. How long have you been together?”

Nikki almost laughed. “We’ve only been together for about a month, but we were really good friends for quite a while before that.”

Becca looked surprised. “Really? That’s all? It seemed like you two had been together for quite some time the way you were interacting with each other.” Nikki nodded and smiled. “Yeah, you’d think we have been. We’ve just been through a lot together and it’s brought us a lot closer.” Becca nodded, thinking everything through.

“So, you mentioned you have a brother?” Nikki nodded and took a sip of her coffee. “Yeah, he’s a scientist too.” Becca finished her food and took a sip of her coffee.

“I see. Are you both in the same kind of science?”

Nikki actually did laugh at this. They had gotten in so many fights about what kind of science they each went into. “No. I’m an astrophysicist among other things and he’s a botanist.”

Becca nodded. _Wow, John sure did land himself a smart one. And beautiful_.

“So, tell me about his team. What are they like? How many are there?”

“Well, there’s three others on his team besides him. Dr. Rodney McKay, who is the head of the Science and Research department, is a completely arrogant man who surprisingly won over John’s trust and loyalty. They’re also best friends. Ronon Dex is…a civilian contract. He looks really intimidating, and is if you pose a threat to John, the team, or the base. He’s very protective and a really cool guy when you get to know him. Then there’s Teyla Emmagen. She’s the leader of her people. They’re called Athosians. She’s one of the most caring people I’ve ever met. You’ll really like her.” Becca smiled. It seemed John worked with a lot of interesting people.

“What about others on the base? Is there anyone I should know about?”

“Dr. Elizabeth Weir is in charge of the expedition. John’s her second in command. She’s a civilian so he takes care of all the military and safety aspects. She’s a really wonderful woman. Highly respected on the base. Dr. Carson Beckett and Dr. Jennifer Keller are the chief medical officers. They’re the best in their field. Um…Major Evan Lorne. He’s John’s second in command. They’ve gotten really close since Lorne was transferred there.”

Nikki looked down at her coffee for a moment and then back up at Becca. “Becca, I mean no disrespect when I say this. Our group back on base…we’ve become like an adopted family. We all look out for one another and everyone’s really close. John, his team, Dr. Weir, Beckett, Keller, Lorne…we all consider each other family. We fight to save each other’s lives almost every other day. It’s brought us really close together. But, like I said, I mean no disrespect to you or your family when I say that.”

Becca smiled. “I know you don’t. To be honest, I’m not sure if John considers us really family anymore. I wouldn’t blame him one bit if he didn’t. John and his father never saw eye to eye. The last time they spoke to each other…Patrick had demanded John stay out of the military and stay and work in the family business. He actually told John that…He would be a disgrace to his family if he left to go fly a plane around with no concern for anyone but himself. That had hit John really hard. And then he and Dave got into a big fight about that fight. And John left. That was the last time we all saw him before the funeral. I had hoped those two would reconcile their differences before it was too late. I thought that they were well on their way to becoming brothers again when John stayed with us for a week while on leave, but…as you can see, that didn’t happen. I just hope that it’s not too late for John and Dave.”

Nikki nodded. “I’m sure it isn’t. Our doctors will do their damnedest to help Dave. I know they will. There’s still hope.” She reached over and laid her hand on Becca’s giving her some hope. Becca smiled and squeezed her hand.

They let go, but before they got up to throw their trash away, a cold voice came from behind Nikki.

“So, I see the whore’s still here.” Nikki’s muscles tensed. She turned around to see Nancy standing behind her. Nikki stood up to face her. “What do you want?”

Becca stood up, but stayed where she was at. “I want to know why a little home wrecker like you is still here. It’s disrespectful to this family and to Dave for you to be here. So why don’t you scurry on away before I call security.”

Becca moved to stand next to Nikki. “She’s not being disrespectful, Nancy. She was invited here and she has more of a right to be here than you do. Now, I understand your intentions for being here for Dave, but if you continue to insult my brother-in-law’s girlfriend, I will be the one to call security.” Nancy’s eyes buldged. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me, Nancy. You’re not a part of this family anymore. You haven’t been since you asked John for a divorce and tried to make his life miserable while he was in the States. He was nothing but nice to you. He didn’t even ask for anything out of the divorce. That was years ago and you’re still bitter.”

“I’m only bitter because he chooses to sleep around with little hoes like this one instead of coming back to me, where he belongs.” Becca rolled her eyes. “You’re the one who asked for the divorce. So drop it.”

“Why don’t you mind your own damn business, Becca? Oh wait, you don’t know how to do that. Just like your husband.”

Nikki kept looking back and forth between the two during the discussion. It was time for her to jump in. “That’s a low blow and you know it. It’s you who can’t seem to mind their own damn business. I don’t care what you call me, but don’t you dare disrespect this family. It just proves how worthless you really are. Now why don’t you do the scurrying and get lost.”

Becca grabbed Nikki’s hand and started to pull her away. “Let’s go back up to the room, Nikki. This isn’t worth it.”

Nikki turned away to follow Becca, but Nancy grabbed her arm, yanked her around and punched her in the face. Nikki stumbled back a step, but caught Nancy’s next strike. She blocked it, grabbed her arm, twisted it behind her back, and slammed her down on the table they had just been sitting at. She leaned forward and whispered in Nancy’s ear. “The next time you decide to disrespect this family, think twice. This is nothing. Now I suggest you get your ass out of here before you’re thrown out of here. Got that?”

She yanked on Nancy’s arm for good measure and then released her. She turned back to Becca and they left the cafeteria together. As soon as they were clear of the cafeteria, Becca turned to Nikki.

“You truly are amazing. That was awesome. You didn’t have to stick up for my family.”

Nikki turned to look at her. “I know, but that was completely disrespectful and I couldn’t just stand there and not do anything about it.”

Becca noticed the line of blood running down Nikki’s cheek. “Nikki, you’re bleeding.”

She reached up and touched the cut. “She must have gotten me with one of her rings when she hit me. John’s not going to be happy when he sees this…” Becca shook her head. “No…he’s not.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Review please!! Until next time!


	17. It's Dave Part Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: If you have anything you want to see happen, just let me know and I'll see if I can work it in. 
> 
> For those of you who have read the previous version: If you hadn't noticed already (and I probably already mentioned this) there will be plenty of chapters that were not in the first version, lots of adventures that never happened, and I will be changing how things happened a little bit. For example: I am pushing back the timeline of when Nikki gets pregnant, ect, ect. I may or may not add in chapters from the previous story. I may leave things out. Obviously, this adventure is from the previous story. The next adventure, however, will be a VERY long chapter (or two long ones, or multiple chapters, haven't decided yet) and it will be very original to this story. I've been working on this chapter, literally, for months and still have a LONG ways to go on it. I'm making good progress though! I also am about to go on Spring Break, so I'll work on it during break too. 
> 
> Anywho...I hope you enjoy! Review please!! And let me know if there's anything you'd like to see!!! ^.^

**Chapter 17**

Nikki and Becca walked into Dave’s room. John was sitting in a chair next to the bed. He looked up when they walked in and immediately saw the blood on Nikki’s face. He jumped up and moved over to her.

“What happened?!” She blushed and looked at Becca. “Well, you see, John. We sort of had a run in with a particularly unhappy…acquaintance.”

John looked at Becca for a moment. “You mean Nancy, don’t you?”

Nikki hesitated and then looked up at John. He could tell instantly from the look in her eyes that it was in fact Nancy. “Where is she?”

“John, don’t worry about it. I took care of it.”

“Nikki, where is she?”

Nikki sighed but shook her head. “John…” He shook his head and looked at Becca. He was pissed. “Becca. Where is she?” Becca looked between the two, but told him where they had last seen her.

He took off out of the room. Nikki went to follow, but Becca stopped her. “Let him handle it. It’ll only make things worse if you go with him.” Nikki nodded and reluctantly moved to sit on the couch. Becca got a paper towel and moistened it.

She moved over to the couch and sat down next to Nikki. She started to clean the cut for her with a smile.

**SGA**

John made his way down to the cafeteria. He was pissed. How dare she hurt his girlfriend? She had no right to be involved whatsoever or even be here in the first place.

He walked through the cafeteria doors and saw her sitting alone at a table rubbing her shoulder. He guessed Nikki must have showed her some of her moves after Nancy hit her.

He walked right up to her. “What the hell is your problem?”

Her head snapped up and she looked up into the face of her very pissed off ex-husband. “Me? She’s the one who slammed me into a table!” He almost chuckled at that, but he was too furious. “You’re the one who hit her. I’m not here to play ‘she started it, no she started it’. I’m here to tell you to back the hell off from my family.”

Nancy laughed a rather cruel laugh. “Oh, so now you’re protective of your family. That’s funny.”

He had to refrain from hitting her. He wanted to so badly.

“Nancy, how the hell can I get it through your head that you’re not a part of this family anymore and that you need to back the hell off?”

She shook her head and continued to rub her shoulder. “I’ll always be a part of your family, John. Whether you like it or not.”

“Oh yeah? And what’s that supposed to mean?”

She winked at him and stood up. “Oh nothing. Just that I’m more invested in this family than you think.”

John looked at her incredulously. “I can’t believe you, Nancy. What the hell happened to the woman I saw at Dad’s wake? What happened to her?”

She laughed bitterly. “Since then I got my second divorce after being told I’m unable to have children. I was told if I would’ve tried ten years ago, I would have been successful. And then I see you with some little tramp who thinks she’s all that just because she’s stationed on the same base as you. You used to look at me the way you look at her. You belong with me, not her, John. When are you going to see that?”

His mouth almost dropped open. So, she was blaming him for not having kids. She was blaming him for moving on and being happy. “You’re unbelievable. It’s not my fault we didn’t have kids, Nancy. You know that more than anyone. I remember saying that if you got pregnant, I’d quit the Air Force and stay to raise our family. I also remember you handing me the divorce papers and telling me to get out.

You’re mad because I moved on. That I’m happy now and am with someone I can really be myself with. You’re mad that I’m not going to come running back to you just because you and…Greg? Grant. Whatever…just because you and him got a divorce. That’s not my fault and it’s not my fault that you’re such a stuck-up bitch who wants everything handed to her. I’m sick and tired of having these arguments. Why do you think I didn’t ask for anything in the divorce? Because I knew it would only cause more arguments than it was worth. Why do you think I didn’t fight for our marriage? Because all it was, was fighting and loneliness. I was sick and tired of coming home after a long and dangerous mission and be nagged at for not being able to talk about it and then getting into a huge fight because of it. Nancy, I’m done arguing. I’m sick and tired of all of this.  Have a good life, Nancy. And don’t try to contact me or my family again. Good-bye.”

With that, he turned and walked away from her, leaving her standing there with silent tears running down her face. Maybe it finally sunk in that she couldn’t have her way this time and that she had crossed the line. Probably not.

**SGA**

A few hours later, he was sitting on the couch with Nikki in his arms. They had gotten her cut cleaned and looked at. Now John was sitting there with his head resting on the wall and he was snoring softly. It was the first time he had slept for hours. He really needed the sleep.

Becca had left a couple of hours ago to pick up the kids and pack their bags. Nikki had assured her that they’d be fine there by themselves. John had already passed out before she left.

She had dosed off herself for about an hour.

Beckett, Keller, and McKay walked into Dave’s room. O’Neill had gone to talk to Dr. Heath in private. They walked in to find John and Nikki asleep on the couch. John’s face was still a little pale, but he was finally relaxed. Carson immediately noticed the cut on Nikki’s face and wondered where the hell that had come from.

They tried to move silently, but McKay accidently walked into a chair. Nikki startled awake and looked up to see Beckett and Keller glaring at McKay who had his hands in the air. She chuckled and they turned to look at her.

She sat up and motioned for them to leave the room to give John a few extra minutes of sleep. They followed her out of the room and she quietly closed the door behind them.

“Hey guys, glad to see you made it okay.” She turned and looked at them. Jennifer was eyeing the cut on her cheek and what was turning into a bruise around it.

“Oh, don’t worry about that. I already had it looked at. I just got into a little…misunderstanding…with John’s ex-wife.”

Rodney’s eyebrow’s seemed to shoot through the roof. “You got in a fight with his ex-wife?!” Nikki rolled her eyes, but nodded. “Things haven’t been…well, the calmest around here. As soon as we got here, Nancy practically cornered us. I told her off, which earned me points with John, but it seriously pissed her off. When Becca and I, John’s sister-in-law, went down to get some food, she started some more trouble, starting saying things to Becca and was being really disrespectful. I put her in her place and she hit me. Her ring cut me. So I twisted her arm around her back and slammed her into the table.”

“Yeah, it was pretty impressive too.” Nikki turned and saw Becca standing there with her two kids. Nikki smiled and moved to introduce everyone. “Becca, these are some of the people I was telling you about. Dr. McKay, Dr. Beckett, and Dr. Keller.” She turned to them. “This is John’s sister-in-law, Becca.” They smiled at each other. Becca looked at all of them. “It’s nice to meet some of John’s friends. He never brings anyone around his family. Of course, he doesn’t come around his family either, but that’s another story.” She chuckled and turned to her kids. “These are my two children: Carrigan and Jayden.” She looked down and addressed her children. “These are the people we’re going to be staying with for a while. So be on your best behavior.” They nodded and looked at the Atlanteans.

Nikki smiled and then cracked the door open. John opened his eyes slightly and looked down to see that Nikki wasn’t there anymore.

Nikki walked into the room and opened the door wider for the rest to follow. “How long was I asleep?”

Nikki looked down at her watch. “About two and a half hours or so. You needed the rest.” He nodded and then looked up at the people behind her. He stood up and then got a surprised look on his face at the sight of McKay.

“Rodney? What are you doing here?”

He snorted. “What? Am I not allowed to come support my best friend? You know what, don’t answer that.”

John rolled his eyes, but pulled Nikki into a hug. It caught her off guard, but she knew that he needed the physical contact to stay grounded.

He let go after a couple of minutes and looked up at the Drs.

“Carson, Jennifer. Glad you could make it.” Carson gave him a small smile. “Aye. We just wish we’d be returning to Ea…the states on happier circumstances.”

He nodded. “Yeah, me too.” Beckett gave him a small nod and moved to his side. “How are you feeling, lad? You don’t look so good.” John managed a small smile. “I’m fine, Doc. It’s my brother you need to worry about.”

Beckett frowned but turned his attention to Dave. He took the chart that was on the table at the end of his bed and started flipping through it. Jennifer joined him and they went through it with hushed voices.

O’Neill walked into the room. “Sheppard! You look…well, not so good to be honest. I brought reinforcements like I promised. I just got everything squared away with the Drs. here. Oh, and I hope you don’t mind, but I took the liberty of having a couple of men go to the hotel and pick up your bags. Just to save some time.”

John nodded. “Good idea, sir. When are we leaving?” Jack looked down at his watch, smiled, then looked back up at Sheppard. “Now. Well, as long as the Drs. are ready to go, that is.”

Beckett and Keller looked up from the chart. “Aye, we’re ready.” Jack leaned out of the door and motioned for a couple of nurses.

The nurses helped as Beckett and Keller unattached the unimportant machines and then moved his bed down the hall and into the elevator. They took him up to the roof and loaded him into a medical helicopter that would transport them to Cheyenne Mountain.

They all climbed in except Jack and Sheppard. O’Neill turned to Jack. “The pilot is a newbie. He’s the only one I could find on short notice. I figured you’d want to take over from here. If you want to, of course.” John nodded. He didn’t want to take any chances when it came to his family.

“Yes, sir.” John moved to the front of the helicopter and got into the pilot’s chair. The original pilot had moved to the co-pilot’s chair already. Jack climbed in and shut the door behind him.

John did his pre-flight routine, put on his headset, and radioed back to O’Neill to make sure they were ready to go. When he got the green light, he turned the helicopter on and flew them to Cheyenne Mountain.

When they reached the SGC, Sheppard shut off the helicopter and everyone unloaded. They got Dave down into the lower levels of the base and stopped right outside of the gate room.

Jack turned to Becca and her children. “Before I can allow you three to walk through these doors, I need all of you to sign a non-disclosure statement that says you will not, under any circumstances, tell anyone outside of this base and the base you’re going to about anything you’re about to see and have already seen. Is that understood?”

Becca nodded. “Yes, I have already discussed it with the children and they understand. We’ll sign anything.”

Jack nodded as an airman entered the hallway from the control room. He had three large envelopes and a pen. He handed them to O’Neill and he had the three sign them. As the paperwork was being finished, Mitchell walked up to Sheppard.

“I didn’t think you’d be leaving so soon…” He spotted Dave lying on the bed and up at Beckett and Keller. “Ah. I see.” He looked up at Sheppard.

John gave the man a small smile. “This is my brother, Dave. He was in an accident and there’s nothing the doctors here on Earth can do for him. So I called in some specialists.”

Mitchell smirked. “Well, good luck, Sheppard. I hope things turn out for the best.” He glanced at Nikki who had her arm around John’s waist and was leaning into him tiredly.

Cam raised an eyebrow at John. “Yes, she’s my girlfriend.” Mitchell got a wide grin on his face and his eyes brightened. “I knew it! You’re definitely wrapped around her finger, but…that’s not always a bad thing. Well, congratulations then!”

Sheppard chuckled and nodded his thanks. Then they were moving into the gate room. Mitchell waved his good-bye to Sheppard and the gate started to dial.

The three new Sheppards watched in amazement as the chevrons locked and then the gate was opened. John smiled and turned to them. “It’s okay. Drs. McKay, Beckett, and Keller will go through first that way you can see it doesn’t hurt. It’s actually pretty cool.”

Jack’s voice came over the intercom. “Sheppard. You have a go. Oh, and good luck. Let me know how it’s going.”

John looked up at the observation window and nodded. “Will do, sir! And thanks again!”

Jack nodded and watched as the doctors pushed the bed carrying John’s brother up the ramp and walked through the gate. Nikki released John and grabbed Becca’s hand. “I’ll walk through with you.”

Becca nodded and smiled her appreciation. They made their way up the ramp and disappeared through the event horizon. John looked down at the kids. “Well, time to go, kids. Don’t worry. I promise it doesn’t hurt.”

They nodded and John sent them through the gate first making sure they got through before he did.

And then they were back home, on Atlantis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Until next time!


	18. It's Dave Part Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The last part of the Dave adventure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Okay! Here is part 4 to this adventure. It is also the last part of that adventure. The next chapter(s) will take a little time to work my way through. It's a massive chapter. So, I will most likely break it up into sections. Enjoy!

**Chapter 18**

Beckett and Keller got Dave settled in infirmary. Becca had decided to go with them to make sure he was okay.

The others were still standing in the gate room. John looked down at Carrigan and Jayden. He’d met Carrigan when she was born and when Jayden was about four. The last time he’d seen them was a few months ago and they’d both grown quite a bit since then.

“Do you guys remember me from a few months ago?”

Jayden nodded, “You spent a week with us, right? You’re dad’s brother.”

John nodded, “Yeah, I did. I meant to stay in touch with you guys, but things got a bit busy around here and it gets hard to keep in contact with people back home.”

He turned and looked at Carrigan. She smiled and extended her hand to him. “I go by Carri now, not Carrigan. You name is John, right?”

He smiled as he took her hand and lightly shook it. “That’s right. And this is my friend Nikki.” She turned and shook Nikki’s hand as well. “It’s a pleasure.” John smiled again and looked up as Teyla walked down the stairs into the gate room. She went straight for John’s side and looked up at him. “It is nice to have you back again, John. All three of you.” She smiled at John, Nikki, and Rodney. They smiled back.

“Yeah, it’s good to be home. Oh, meet my niece and nephew. Teyla, this is Carri and Jayden. Guys, this is my friend Teyla. She’ll be looking after you while you’re here.”

Teyla smiled at the children and then turned to look at John. “I will?”

“Oh, yeah. Um…you don’t mind, do you? Becca will be in the infirmary most of the time, as will I. I figured you were the best candidate for the job.”

She smiled and nodded her head. “That is fine. I do not mind looking after them while your brother gets better.” She turned to Carri and Jayden. “Are you guys hungry?” They both nodded. “Okay, let’s go to the mess hall and get some food. Then I will show you to your quarters.”

John and Nikki watched them walk away. Elizabeth came down the stairs and stopped in front of them.

“Good to have you back. Things have been quiet since you left. With Rodney not fussing and you not finding us extra problems to deal with, things have been…calm.” She smiled and looked at John. He rolled his eyes, but gave her a small smile. “Yeah, it’s good to be back. I need to get down to the infirmary though. So, if you’ll excuse me…” He walked away, leaving the three of them watching him go. Elizabeth turned to Nikki.

“Can you tell me what’s going on?” Nikki nodded and followed her to her office while Rodney left to go to the mess hall.

In Dr. Weir’s office, Nikki told her everything that had happened since they had left. Well, everything except what had happened in the hotel room. Elizabeth didn’t need to know about that.

“I see you both have had an interesting couple of days.” Nikki nodded and sighed, exhausted. Elizabeth smiled. “Why don’t you go get some rest. You look like you could use it.” She gave Elizabeth a grateful smile, stood up, and left her office.

She planned on going back to her quarters and going to bed, but she decided to go back to John’s quarters instead. She had no idea when he’d be back from the infirmary, but she knew that when he did return to his quarters, he would need her.

She opened the door manually, set her duffel bag by the door, and sat down on his bed. She looked around his room. It was really tidy for a guy’s room. Although, he had been in the military for, what? At least fifteen years.

She laid back on the bed and just looked up at the ceiling. She was laying with her legs dangling off the edge. It wasn’t that comfortable, but it didn’t have to be because about a minute after she laid back, she fell asleep.

By the time John got back to his quarters, they had been back on Atlantis for at least two hours. He walked into his quarters and saw Nikki lying on her side at the end of his bed. She must have come in there to wait for him, but had fallen asleep.

He chuckled and then got ready for bed. When he moved over to his bed, he decided to make her comfortable first. He took off her shoes first and then her socks. He carefully sat her up and removed her jacket. Then he moved the blanket aside, picked her up, and positioned her under the blanket. He pulled the corner up over her shoulder and looked down at her sleeping form.

He walked around to the other side and climbed in as well. He rolled on to his side, wrapped his arm around her, and fell asleep thinking about the woman that he loved.

**SGA**

Dave was in a coma for an entire week while on Atlantis. Beckett and Keller had tried everything they could think of to help him. Beckett had told John one day that they had given him a kind of drug that if he should come out of the coma, the chances of him having brain damage would lower. That had eased John’s mind a bit, but it still didn’t bring his brother out of the coma.

John and Becca took turns staying with Dave. Sometimes they would both sit with him. Sometimes the kids would be there, and sometimes Nikki would be there, either with Becca or John, it didn’t matter. She stayed with both of them.

Nikki and Becca had become really close over the time they spent on Atlantis. It made John happy that his girlfriend got along with his family. Or at least the family that wasn’t in a coma.

On the tenth day that Dave and his family were on Atlantis, John was sitting with him with a data pad. He was going over mission reports and filling out necessary paperwork.

He heard a noise that sounded like rustling, but he figured he had imagined it. He had heard it before several times, snapped his head up thinking Dave was waking up, only to be disappointed.

He heard the noise again and looked up this time just to be sure. When he looked up, his hazel eyes locked with a set of blue eyes, Dave’s eyes.

John’s eyes widened. His hand snapped to his com. “Carson! He’s awake!” He leaned forward, setting his data pad on the bed next to Dave’s.

“Dave, how are you feeling?” He looked around the infirmary confused. “Where am I?”

“You’re on the military base where I’m stationed. I brought you here because I thought it might help your recovery with more advanced medicines. You’re safe. Do you remember anything?”

He slowly shook his head. “No. What happened?” Carson came running into the room followed by Jennifer. “You were in a car accident and slipped into a coma.” John looked up at Carson.

“He said he doesn’t remember anything.”

“Aye, I’m not surprised. He was in a coma for almost two weeks.” Carson checked his vitals as Jennifer went over the standard questions you ask a patient who just came out of a coma.

“I’m going to ask you a few standard questions. Do you remember your name?”

He nodded. “David Sheppard.” Jennifer nodded. “Your birthdate?”

They went through several more questions, Dave answering them perfectly. He looked back at John and their eyes met. “John, am I seeing things or is it really you?”

John gave him a sad smile. “Yeah, Dave. It’s me.” Dave looked confused again. “But, why? Why are you here?”

The look that passed through John’s eyes next was pain. He reached up and hit his com again. “Nikki, will you please bring Becca to the infirmary? Dave’s awake.”

John took Dave’s hand and squeezed once, but Dave took it back. “I’m here because you’re my brother and I wanted you to get better.”

He stood up and moved away from the bed. Jennifer threw John a sad smile that he missed and continued to ask Dave some questions and filled him in on some of the details. Dave’s eyes never left John’s. Dave’s eyes were accusing where John’s were filled with raw pain. He had tried to save his brother’s life, but that wasn’t good enough for Dave.

As soon as Becca and Nikki walked in, John left. He didn’t look at anyone, but he didn’t have to. Nikki immediately saw the pain in his eyes. She looked at Jennifer confused. Keller stepped aside so that Becca could see her husband. They stepped out of earshot of the bed and Jennifer told her what had happened between the men when Dave had awoken.

Nikki nodded and excused herself to go find John.

She found him in his quarters. He had his head in his hands and his shoulders were shaking. She went to his side and put her arm around his shoulders. He leaned into her arms and she held him while he couldn’t hold in his feelings any longer.

Having Dave ask him those questions had broken him. His own brother was asking why he was there at his sick bed. _Some brother I am_ , he thought.

It took him a while to get his feelings under control again, but he didn’t move away from her. He needed her right now. She was his anchor to sanity. She kept rubbing his back and trying to soothe him. Before she knew it, his muscles relaxed and he started to snore softly.

 _Good, he needs some sleep_ , she thought.

She laid him down on the bed and then took his boots off. She grabbed an extra blanket that was laying on a chair, curled up next to him, and fell asleep with him. She wanted to make sure she was with him when he woke up.

**SGA**

John hadn’t gone back to the infirmary in three days since Dave had woken up from his coma. He didn’t feel it was his place to visit him. Nikki visited once with Becca.

She had introduced Nikki as a good friend of hers, and then as John’s girlfriend. They had talked for a while, but then Nikki had to go. She was late for her shift.

Nikki went back when no one was there. She wanted to talk to Dave and see if he really thought things between him and John were really hopeless as John did.

She walked into the infirmary and saw that Dave was awake and reading a book Becca had brought him. She walked over to his bed and he looked up at her and smiled. “I hope I’m not interrupting.”

“Oh no, of course not. Please sit.” She sat in the chair that was sitting next to his bed. “So, what do I get the pleasure of seeing you here for?”

She bit her lip once, but sighed and told him why she was there. “I was wondering why you don’t want John to visit you while you’re here.”

That took Dave by surprise and he looked away. “It’s not that I don’t want him to visit. I do, I want to see him. He’s my big brother. But…he doesn’t want to see me. That much is clear since I’ve been awake for three days now and he hasn’t come by once.”

Nikki wanted to shake her head at him, but she refrained. “He doesn’t think you want him here, that’s why he hasn’t come by.” Dave looked up with sad eyes. “Why wouldn’t I want him here?”

“Don’t you remember what you said when you woke up and he was here?”

His eyebrows furrowed. “He was here when I woke up? I’m sorry, I don’t really remember what was going on when I first woke up. The first thing I remember is when Becca came.”

Nikki sighed and looked down at her hands. “Then I have a story to tell you, Dave. And you need to listen.” He nodded and gestured for her to continue.

“Two weeks ago, we were sitting at our usual table in the mess hall eating breakfast when John got a call from Earth saying he was needed. All the message said was that there had been an accident involving you. He was instantly worried and went to pack his bag. When John and I stepped through the gate and were back on Earth, General O’Neill told us that you had been in an accident and that you were at St. Rose Hospital. It took us hours to get there, but John couldn’t do anything but stare out the window and hope his brother was okay. We got to the hospital and immediately his stress doubled. We ran into Nancy and they argued. We got to your room and I could see the pain and sadness in his eyes from looking at his little brother lying motionless on a bed with a breathing tube in his throat. He blamed himself for not being there sooner. He didn’t admit that, but I knew he did because I know him. When the doctors told him there was nothing they could do for you, that didn’t stop him. He immediately made a call and made sure that you received the best treatment possible, which was to come here. He arranged security clearances for all of you. He made sure your kids would be able to come. He didn’t leave your side for practically the entire time we were on Earth. The only time he did was because of Nancy. When we got here to Atlantis, John and Becca took turns sitting by your side. John didn’t want you to be alone when you woke up. He made sure there was someone here at all times. Someone that you knew. Dr. Beckett had to force him out of the infirmary several times because he didn’t want to leave your side, sure that you’d wake up soon. And then you did. And he was there for it. He tried to grab your hand, but you pulled away from him. You asked him why he was there. He said it was because you’re his brother, but you just sat there and stared at him. That made him feel like a horrible brother. He went back to his quarters and mourned the loss of his brother that was very much alive and awake.”

He just sat there staring at nothing, taking it all in. She stood up and looked down at him. “You needed to know that. Now the ball is in your court. If you don’t want to do anything with that information, fine. You might want to mourn the loss of your brother as well and just forget you have a brother. You put him through hell and I don’t want to see him in that much pain again because of someone he calls family.”

Dave looked up at her with sad eyes. “But if you do want to do something with that information, than do something before you leave. Don’t wait until you’re back on Earth, because it’ll be too late then. He needs his little brother now. He brought you here, to his home in another galaxy to make sure you survived. To make sure you could function again if you ever woke up from the coma. If anything, don’t you at least owe him a thank you?”

Dave could do nothing but stare at her. She shook her head and started for the door. “Wait.”

She stopped and turned to look at him. “Does he even want to see me after all of that?”

“You’re his _brother_. His _family_. You should know the answer to that.”

Nikki walked out of the infirmary, not realizing she passed Becca on the way out. She stepped into the infirmary and walked over to Dave’s bed.

“You know she’s right. About everything. John turned the world upside down for you, risked his career to bring you and your family to another galaxy where he knew you’d get the help you needed. He’s a good man. I’ve gotten to know him since he came to the hospital in California. You’re missing out on a relationship with an amazing man. Dave, he’s your brother.” Dave nodded and took her hand. “You’re right. You both are.”

**SGA**

John, his team and Nikki were all sitting around the same table they had been sitting at the day John had gotten called back to Earth. Ever since Dave had woken from his coma, John had been subdued and kept to himself more than usual. Today, he had tried to insert himself into the conversation again and make things go back to normal.

He needed normality. They were talking about the next mission the team was going to go on, when John’s radio came on.

“Colonel Sheppard, this is Dr. Beckett. I need to see you in the infirmary right away.” He reached up and hit his com. “Is there some kind of emergency?”

His teammates stopped and stared at him. It was like déjà vu. “Aye, I need you in here now.”

“On my way.” He looked at his team. “There’s an emergency in the infirmary. Carson needs me. I’ll see you guys later.”

He jumped up and jogged out of the mess hall. Nikki watched him go, silently hoping it was Dave trying to make amends.

He made his way to the infirmary in record time. He ran in, but the only one there was Dave. He was sitting on the end of the bed he had been occupying for days. He was dressed in his usual clothes. It looked like he was being released.

Dave looked up when John ran into the room. John froze as their eyes connected. What was going on here?

Dave gave him a small smile and gestured to the chair near him. “Please, sit? I’d like to talk.”

John slowly walked over to the chair, but instead he stood behind it and tucked his hands into his pockets.

“Fair enough. John, I wanted to apologize. For everything. What I said to you when I woke up, that wasn’t fair.” He paused and looked down at his hands. “I’ve had some time…okay, a lot of time…to think about what has happened. I’ve been told everything that you did for me when I was in the coma. And then for me to just dismiss you like that when I woke up. That wasn’t right. You didn’t have to come back to Earth for me, but you did. You didn’t have to risk your career to get me and my family- _our_ family-here to another galaxy, but you did. And you did it for me. I owe you an apology for everything.”

He looked up at John and saw the pain in his eyes. He was always good at hiding his feelings from his features, but his eyes told everything. “You’re my big brother. And I’m sorry.”

John nodded. He accepted the apology. John knew Dave meant it. He could see it in his eyes.

“You know, I’ve had a lot of time to just sit here. There have been several military personnel in here and they have all told me what an honor it is to serve under your command. They told me about how you sacrificed your life time and time again to save several people, not only on this base or from Earth, but strangers from different planets. They told me about how you used your smarts to think up solutions to problems that seemed impossible to fix, but you managed it. I don’t know how many stories I was told of you and your team.”

He chuckled and nodded. “And then there’s Nikki. She came in here a couple of nights ago and let me have it.” He looked down at his hands. “She really opened my eyes to what I did and to what kind of man you are. And then Becca really ground it in afterward. It seems you have my wife on your side.” John chuckled and gave Dave a small smile. “Well, I can’t help that I’m so charming.”

Dave actually laughed and looked up at his big brother. “Same old John.” John’s smile grew and he looked at the floor and blushed. “Now, I was just released and I’m starving. So, would it be too much to ask if we go to the mess hall and maybe get to know each other again?”

John looked up at his brother and his smile grew. “I’d like that, Dave.” Dave nodded and stood up. “Well, it’s settled then. You need to tell me more about this girlfriend of yours…” They laughed and walked out of the infirmary together.

They entered the mess hall laughing and telling each other stories. Now that John didn’t have to keep secrets from his brother anymore, it was easier to get to know him.

Everyone sitting at their regular table looked up when the brothers walked in. They all smiled as they watched their friend get to know his brother again. John was finally happy and had his family back.

Nikki smiled when John glanced over at her and met her eye. She winked at him and his smile grew. She could practically feel the happiness coming off of him as John and Dave sat down at an empty table and shared stories.

Everything was back to normal. For about a month. And that's when their next adventure began.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Review please! Until next time.


	19. Back In Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The next adventure!! John, Rodney, and Nikki are called back to the SGC for meetings with the IOA. What happens back home will be one hell of an adventure!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I was going to make this chapter longer, but I decided to give you something and a taste for this adventure. I am currently sitting on a train for 3 hours by myself SO I have plenty of time to write. I will be starting the next chapter once this is posted. If anyone wants to help me with the next installments of this chapter, THANK YOU! I would really appreciate it. I really would. It might help me get it posted faster. I've been waiting for this adventure for MONTHES. I'm serious. I've had this planned out since last summer...No. Way before that even. For over a year, roughly, really. I've been waiting patiently for when I could do this. So, PM me if you are interested in helping me out. I hope you enjoy this adventure!

**Chapter 19**

John walked down the ramp into the gate room at Stargate Command. He had Nikki on one side and McKay on the other. They had been summoned by General Landry to attend a meeting with the IOA regarding some past missions that hadn’t exactly gone the way any of them had intended them to. John wasn’t exactly sure what to expect out of this visit, but he had a bad feeling. As Rodney would say, his ‘spidey senses’ were tingling.

They met General Landry at the end of the ramp, John throwing a quick salute before being put at ease.

“Colonel, Drs., I wish you were back on better terms. It seems the IOA has gotten the urge to knit pick at every detail of all past failed missions. And not just in Pegasus. They’ve been laying into my teams as well.”

John repressed the urge to sigh. “I think they’d have a different viewpoint if they were the ones out there risking their asses and running from the Wraith.”

“I agree, but you know the IOA, Colonel, they’re a bunch of paper pushers. All except Bates, of course. I’m surprised he joined them to be honest.”

John turned his head to the side. “Bates, sir?”

Landry nodded, “I meant to warn you. Sergeant Bates was asked to join them shortly after his return and recovery from Pegasus. He’s…a bit unforgiving.”

Nikki rose an eyebrow, turning towards John. “Who’s Sergeant Bates?”

McKay beat him to an explanation. “An arrogant marine who accused Teyla of being a Wraith worshipper back in the early days of us occupying Atlantis.”

John nodded, “More than once. Got in my face and accused me of overlooking it because of my personal feelings.”

“Your personal feelings?”

McKay rolled his eyes. “Yes, the entire city thought the two of them had a thing for each other for the longest time. Until you came along, actually.”

John rolled his eyes as well. “Not my fault everyone saw something that wasn’t there. Anyway, she punched him, Ford and I broke them up, then they went separate ways. Shortly after, he was found unconscious and injured. From a Wraith.”

Landry nodded. “I’m just glad that’s in the past; though if you believe the rumors, he’s out to get her kicked off your team, Colonel.”

Sheppard shook his head. “That’ll never happen. She’s a valuable member of my team. She’s not going anywhere.”

Landy smiled. “I knew you were going to say that, Colonel. If he does try something, I’ll do my best to keep her on your team. I agree with you. She _is_ a valuable member of your team. Besides, she’s fought alongside you against the Wraith for years. If she really were a Wraith worshipper, we’d know by now.”

McKay threw a hand in impatience. “Yes, yes. Teyla is loyal to us. I, for one, would like to get this meeting over with so I can get back to the city. I have several experiments that I was forced to leave in the hands of idiots. I’d like to get back before they mess something up.”

John rolled his eyes as they followed Landry out of the gate room and up to the conference room. The IOA representatives were already there and waiting. They hardly acknowledged the Lanteans as they sat down across the table from them.

After a beat, one of them looked up from the files spread out in front of them. “Colonel Sheppard, Dr. McKay, Dr. Teagan. Shall we get started?”

 

Nikki slumped and rested her head against her arms. After three long hours of nothing but arguing, they had finally taken a break. The three had headed to the mess hall to get some caffeine in their systems before being subjected to more agonizingly long hours of criticism.

“Can we go home yet?”

John chuckled and rubbed circles in Nikki’s back the way he always did to make her feel better. “Hopefully soon. I don’t know how much more of this I can take. I almost wish there was some kind of problem to delay the meetings.”

McKay’s head snapped up from his coffee and blue jell-o. “Are you _trying_ to kill me? You do realize that now that you said that something’s going to happen, right? That’s how it always goes! As soon as you say ‘It couldn’t get worse’ or ‘I wish there was a problem for McKay to solve’ something bad always happens!”

John rolled his eyes, taking a sip of his coffee. “Relax, Rodney. We’re not in Atlantis where anything could happen. We’re back on Earth where it’s dull.”

Nikki lifted her head and turned to look at him. “You know, he’s right. Have you read some of the mission reports from Stargate Command? Things do tend to get pretty intense here as well.”

John shrugged, “Do you guys really want to go back into that conference room or would you prefer a bit of action?”

There was a beat before Rodney grimaced. “He has a point. Though it’s never just ‘a bit’ of trouble with you. It’s always life or death.”

“With _me_? It’s not _always_ life or death. Just…about seventy-five percent of the time.”

“I was leaning more towards ninety-two percent. When it’s not quiet and boring, it’s intense as hell.”

Before more could be said, alarms started blaring through the base, causing everyone to jump to their feet and run to their stations.

McKay whirled towards John. “See what you did! The whole base is freaking out!”

John got to his feet and took off in the direction of the control room with Nikki and McKay not far behind. He had just reached the doorway when a metal pipe swung towards him from seemingly nowhere and collided with his head. The last thing he heard was Nikki yelling his name before everything went dark.

**SGA**

John groaned softly. His head was throbbing. Instantly, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He immediately recognized the touch.

“John, stay still. I finally just got the bleeding stopped. You lost a bit of blood. Can you open your eyes?”

He pried his eyes open and immediately wished he hadn’t. The light sent a searing pain through his skull.

“What the hell happened?”

“We’re not exactly sure what happened. All we know is that a group of men wearing military uniforms took over the gate room and the control room. They didn’t say much…I didn’t recognize any of them, but that doesn’t mean anything.”

John looked at Rodney who was sitting on the other side of him. “Okay…what else did I miss?”

Nikki helped him sit up, knowing he wouldn’t stay down. “They hit you over the head with a pipe, knocking you out. I tried to fight them, but they overpowered me. They took us, McKay, Dr. Jackson, a few scientists, and a couple of unconscious marines and locked us in one of the holding rooms. There’s no way out.”

John nodded, looking around. He was kind of glad he wasn’t the only one who’d been knocked out, but at the same time wished the marines were conscious in case the men came in. He got to his feet shakily with Nikki’s help and started casing the room.

“There’s no use, Sheppard, we’ve already checked the whole room out. It’s locked from the outside. We’re stuck in here.”

“I just don’t like doing nothing. How long has it been since they threw us in here?”

Nikki looked down at her watch. “Maybe fifteen minutes. It hasn’t been all too long. They searched us, took everything we could use as a weapon. I think the IOA reps are in the room next to us with some more soldiers, but I don’t know about anyone else.”

John nodded, turning towards Dr. Daniel Jackson. “I’m guessing SG-1 didn’t have a mission today?”

He shook his head. “We’ve been grounded for a couple of days due to an injury. Cam got a bad concussion and Lam didn’t want him going off-world just in case.”

Sheppard nodded. “Any teams off-world that you know off?”

Daniel sighed. “I wish I knew. I’ve been in my office practically since we got back from our last mission doing research. Cam would know, but I have no idea where he was prior to the raid on the gate room.”

After a few minutes of pacing, John finally sat down next to Nikki. “Well, we were scheduled to check in with Atlantis in five hours. They won’t want to go too long without their military commander or their two head scientists. When they dial the SGC, they’ll see that something’s going on, if they answer at all.”

Rodney nodded, “Yeah, I agree, but I think you’re forgetting a key component in this problem.”

“What’s that, Rodney?”

“You’re forgetting about the iris that protects the base from unwanted company. If anyone from Atlantis tries to rescue us, they’ll be vaporized and lost forever.”

John thought a moment. “The iris has to be activated in order to close. It doesn’t automatically close when the gate is dialed. They might not know about it or how to operate it if they aren’t from the base.”

Rodney blinked. “Okay, you have a point, but say you’re wrong and they _do_ know how to operate it. What then?”

“You once created a back door into the shield on Atlantis and was able to open it from the other side. Could the same thing be done with the iris?”

Nikki and Rodney looked at each other for a long moment, doing calculations and scenarios in their heads.

Nikki turned to John. “If it’s done right…I don’t see why not. The iris is a little different than the shield in the city, but…”

“But it’s basically the same configurations. The only problem is we’re on the wrong side. Nikki and I are the only ones I’d trust to be able to do it successfully.”

Nikki looked back at him. “Radek could do it. It might take him a little longer, but I believe he could do it.”

McKay rolled his eyes. “I highly doubt it.”

John held up his hand before McKay could go on some rant about how incapable Radek was. “There’s also a small possibility that we won’t need them to invade the base.”

“What are you suggesting? We escape from an inescapable room and then retake the base?”

John shrugged, “Yeah, pretty much.”

McKay threw his hands into the air. “You are hopeless. First, you get us into this mess by saying you’d rather have some problem to solve than be in a meeting with the IOA, and now your genius plan to save the day is to break out of a room that is impossible to break out of.”

“Okay, so it’s not exactly foolproof. It’s a work in progress. Better than what you’ve come up with so far!”

“I-uh…yeah, good point.”

Daniel put his head into his hands. The marines started waking up slowly, one by one. John watched them, waiting for them to fully regain consciousness. When they were all awake, he nodded at them.

“Morning, boys. Not to alarm you, but we’re currently locked in a room and Stargate Command has been taken over by a group of men wearing military uniforms.”

“Sir? How did that happen?”

“No idea. I was in the mess hall when it happened. But sit tight, Atlantis should be here in about five to six hours.”

It wasn’t too much longer before the door opened. John, Nikki, McKay, and the marines were instantly on their feet. Three men stepped inside, looking right at John. “You Colonel Sheppard?”

John narrowed his eyes slightly. “Depends on who I’m talkin’ to.”

One of the men took a step forward. “You’re coming with us.”

John threw a glance at Nikki and Rodney. “Sit tight.”

The door shut behind him and he followed the men down the long hallway, taking them in silently.

“So, come here often?”

One of the men glanced over his shoulder at John and threw him a glare. “Shut up. The boss will explain.”

“Good to know.”

They lead John up to the conference room he had been in for hours in meetings. The papers were scattered across the room as if there had been a massive struggle, which he assumed there had been. There was a man who radiated authority sitting at the end of the table. He smiled wickedly as John walked in.

“Colonel John Sheppard. We meet at last. I had intended to meet with you sooner, but I hadn’t anticipated you getting yourself knocked out at the very beginning. It seems I overestimated you.”

John grimaced. “Usually it’s the other way around. One of your guys just happened to come around the corner with a pipe at the same time I was. Just a matter of coincidence really.”

The man nodded, taking John in. John shifted his weight to the other leg. “So, why exactly am I here? Or, should I say, why are _you_ here?”

The man leaned forward and braced himself on his elbows, his hands clasping together. “I read in a report that you were sent forward in time because of a solar flare and a glitch in the system when you stepped through the gate.”

John’s insides turned. He didn’t like the way this was heading. “How do you have access to reports?”

“It said you were sent quite a ways into the future. Is that correct?”

John’s spidey senses were going off the charts at this point. “What does this have to do with anything?”

“In approximately 20 minutes, there will be a solar flare. We’re going to use that to go back in time and stop the stargate program from being initiated. And you’re going to help us do that.”

A rock dropped into the pit of his stomach. “Excuse me? You want me to help you do what? Why would I ever help you?”

“You have a rare case of the ATA gene, I’ve been told. We will possibly be working with Ancient components that acquire the gene. I can’t risk going through with this mission only to fail because I don’t have someone who has the gene. You’ll be coming with us.”

The man turned to his men. “Get him down to the gate room. We leave shortly.”

John tried to put up a fight, but was silenced. “Oh, and Colonel? If you try to fight us or escape, take back the base, what have you…your precious girlfriend, Dr. Teagan, and your friend, Dr. McKay, won’t be breathing by the time we get back from our mission.”

John stopped dead in his tracks. “Don’t you dare lay a finger on either of them.”

“Oh, I won’t. Unless you aren’t cooperative. If you prove to be difficult, you may force my hand.”

John allowed the men to pull him from the room, trying to come up with some kind of plan for how the hell they were supposed to get out of this mess. The others may be able to rely on Atlantis to rescue them, but he was about to travel back in time where the stargate project hadn’t been invented yet. There would be no one to come to his rescue.

They took him down to the gate room and prepared to gate. It wasn’t long before the man in charge entered the room and stood in front of them. “We’ll only have one chance at this, so when the gate is activated, we move quickly, is that understood?”

The men around him nodded silently. John clenched his jaw, not at all thrilled with what was about to happen.

It was only a couple of minutes later when the gate started to dial. The chevrons locked and the event horizon swished out before settling in place. The men quickly moved forward behind their leader, John pulled along with them.

He sent off a quick thought to Nikki, wishing them all the best in getting out of their situation, before being pulled through the gate into nothingness.

**SGA**

 

John stepped away from the gate and looked around. It was like he’d stepped right back into the gate room, but everything was covered in sheets and there were cobwebs in the corners of the rooms.

They pulled him down the ramp and through the doors. John was expecting some kind of resistance, but there was no one here. The whole place was eerily quiet. He thought back through mission reports that he’d read and guessed that this preceded when Jack O’Neill and Dr. Jackson went on the first mission off-world. This must have been around the time when they were actually figuring out what the ring _was_. Or maybe even before that, he couldn’t be sure. He knew that after that first mission, there were always guards posted to guard a dysfunctioning ring that no one had touched in years. He wasn’t sure if they had guards on it before then though.

They brought him into a big open room he supposed would one day become the conference room. There were a couple of chairs, but that was about it.

The boss turned around and looked at his men. “Okay, let’s get to work. I’ll be down in one of the operating rooms. Radio me if you need anything. You know what to do.”

John sat down in one of the chairs, bracing himself. He wanted them to think he wasn’t a threat, that he was going to be good and do as he was told so that his friends would be okay. The thing was, if he did it right, he could probably overcome them and end all of this before the next solar flare and his friends would be just fine. There was also the possibility that by the time they get back, Atlantis will have intervened and everything would be under control again. He couldn’t sit around and do nothing while they tried to sabotage the program that gave him a home.

The men started wandering around, some going downstairs to probably fiddle with things and try to make them unrepairable. They’d brought seven men with them. Currently, there were three left in the room.

A thought struck him. Nikki had told him that they had all been searched for weapons, but had they checked his boot for the knife he kept hidden there thanks to Ronon? He casually shifted his leg to rub against the chair and get a feel for his knife. There it was. He still had it on him.

He rolled his eyes at their stupidity. “Hey! What are you rolling your eyes at, huh?”

John chuckled. “Oh, nothing really. Just your stupidity.”

There was only one guy facing him and he didn’t have a weapon in his hands. He’d put it back in its holster.

In one quick movement, John reached down and pulled the knife free from his boot. He used the knife throwing skills that, again, Ronon had taught him and landed the knife a centimeter above the man’s heart before he could draw his weapon.

As the other two were alerted, he picked up his chair and whipped it at the head of the closest of them. Thankfully, he had had the element of surprise to his advantage. The second man fell as the chair slammed into the side of his head, but the third was well aware of what was going on. John reached over and pulled the second man in front of him, yanking his gun from its holster and pointing it at his head. “Shoot and I shoot. I don’t think you’d like it very much if your friend here died because of you. I doubt your boss would like it very much either.”

The man glared at him. “What do you want?”

“I want to get out of here. You let me go, no one else gets hurt. You already have one body on your hands. Just let me go, and no more lives will be taken. All you have to do is tell your boss I got the jump on you, you were taken off guard and I escaped. You tried to stop me, but I was too fast, too whatever you’d like to throw in. You can tell him I had a hidden weapon you guys missed when you searched me, which is true. You weren’t quite as thorough as you thought.”

The guy seemed to be thinking it over. “Why should I let you go? The boss says we need you.”

John shook his head. “The ATA gene doesn’t come into use until well after the program is initiated. From the looks of it, we jumped back to before they even figured out what the gate does. If you let me go, you won’t have to worry about me. It’s not like I could go talk to anyone. No one would believe me. They don’t know what a stargate is, so I would automatically declared insane if I tried to bring in help, so that’s out. Besides, the only think your boss needed me for was my gene. That’s out too. Just let me go quietly and the worst that will happen is your boss will get pissed, but that’s it. I have no advantages other than not getting myself killed.”

The guy shifted, thinking it over for a long moment. John thought about using his hesitation against him and shooting him, but that would alert the other guys that something fishy was going on and he couldn’t risk that. He also couldn’t risk this guy firing off a warning shot at him. He had to wait him out. Which didn’t take all too long.

“I guess you’re right. But if you even think about coming back and trying to catch a ride back with us, I’ll kill you myself.”

John nodded. “The thought hadn’t crossed my mind.”

He lowered his gun and stepped to the side away from the door. “Leave him here and make a run for it. I’ll make it look like you escaped.”

John took the guy he was holding with him to the door, never giving the other guy an opportunity to change his mind. When he passed the man he’d killed, he quickly reached down and grabbed his knife, slipping it into the sheath, and the man’s gun. Once he was in the doorway, he dropped the other guy and took off running, keeping one fun in his hand and the other in his waistband for when he ran out of bullets.

He couldn’t believe that had worked. He wondered how long it would take for the guy to alert everyone else at his disappearance. He made it almost all the way to the top when he heard the alarm going off. He chuckled, knowing he’d be long gone by the time they found their way to the surface.

**SGA**

John had been walking for hours. He’d tried to get someone to pull over and give him a lift to the nearest town, but there hadn’t really been any traffic. If he remembered correctly, he’d only have about another hour of walking before he came across a town, but he felt like he was wasting time.

He hadn’t been lying back there when he’d said that no one would believe him that he was from the future and he’d gotten here by means of a stargate and a solar flare interrupting the matter stream. He had no idea how to go about getting help. He knew that he needed to, but he just wasn’t sure how. He could track down General Hammond, maybe he would believe him. Afterall, SG1 traveled back in time to a time before the stargate program and ran into him, if he remembered correctly. Maybe he would believe him in this instance.

There was no way General O’Neill would believe him. He was still a Colonel at this point. If he remembered correctly, Jack’s son was still alive if he had his information correctly, depending on how far back in time they were. He needed to figure out exactly when they were transported back to, that would help him figure out a way to get help and stop them from destroying all possibilities of the program. Maybe he could even figure out who these guys were and why they wanted the program destroyed in the first place.

He finally reached the town made his way towards the library. It was the first thing that came to his mind that would help him track down the general, if he was a general yet. He needed to figure out the date and then find some transportation.

Once in the library, he walked around until he found the computer lab. Thankfully, he was wearing his uniform so everyone who looked his way would simply nod at him, a silent recognition for being in the military. Maybe wearing his uniform would help him fly a little under the radar better. He’d get noticed more, but no one would question a soldier.

He sat down in front of the computer and noticed that there was no browser. He rolled his eyes and found the date. It was July 10th, 1988. John’s eyes widened. He’d gone back in time nineteen years…That meant there was no internet. The internet wouldn’t be invented for another four years. He sighed, running a hand over his face. He’d have to do it all the hard way then.

He stood and walked over to the main desk. A younger looking girl with light brown hair swept into a ponytail was working behind the desk. She looked up as he approached and he put on his best flyboy smile. “Excuse me, I was wondering if you have a directory I could use?”

She smiled shyly at him, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear and reached into a drawer. She extracted a thick book and slid it across the desk towards him. “Here you go, sir. If you need a phone, there’s one downstairs in the basement.”

He nodded, “Thank you.”

John flipped open the phone book and went to the H’s. He slid his finger down the line, scanning for the name he desperately needed. He wasn’t even sure what town Hammond was from. There was a Hammond, but not the one he needed.

He flipped the book closed and exhaled heavily. This was not going to be easy. He slid the book back over to the girl and smiled. “Thank you for letting me use it.”

She smiled back at him. “You’re welcome, sir. Anything else I can help you with?”

A thought occurred to him. “Actually, yes. Do you know if there are any rental places here?”

“If you turn left when you leave here and go about a mile down the road, there’s going to be a rental place. They’re fairly cheap too.”

“Thank you.” He vaguely registered as she smiled and responded, but he was already moving towards the exit. He needed to get to a rental and then figure out how to find General Hammond. Once he reached the door, he realized he didn’t have any money. The problems were just piling up around him. He couldn’t get onto a base because in this time, he was only 17 and just about to join the military. His ID wouldn’t match up with what he looked like now. He couldn’t buy anything because he’d spent the past four years in another galaxy without the use of money. He had a bank account with a lot of money in it, but that was in the future. He had no phone to contact anyone, he had no way to figure out how to get to General Hammond. He was on his own in trying to figure out how to save the stargate program that wasn’t even in the early stages of being founded yet. He just hoped he’d be able to succeed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, what did you think? Review please! Until next time. (Remember! PM me! ^.^)


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